Blue & Gold
by Tarafina
Summary: The day Chloe was born, a prophecy was made and her destiny was laid out for her. "The White Wolf. Bound to the Broken Boy. Destined to meet a Demon Wolf. The hells will rain pain like no other but she will survive. She will fight. And when the day comes, she will bring order again." [Chloe Sullivan/Derek Hale - Part One of the Unbalanced Series]
1. Prologue

**Title**: Blue & Gold  
**Series**: Unbalanced (1 of 3)  
**Category**: Teen Wolf/Smallville  
**Genre**: Romance/Drama  
**Ship**: Chloe Sullivan/Derek Hale  
**Chapter Rating**: PG-13/Teen  
**Overall** **Rating**: NC-17/Explicit  
**Word Count**: 1,992  
**Summary**: The day Chloe was born, a prophecy was made and her destiny was laid out for her. "The White Wolf. Bound to the Broken Boy. Destined to meet a Demon Wolf. The hells will rain pain like no other but she will survive. She will fight. And when the day comes, she will bring order again." [Chloe Sullivan/Derek Hale - Part One of the Unbalanced Series]

**_Blue & Gold_**

**Prologue**.

The scent of wild flowers was heavy on the breeze, sweet and calming. She laid atop a grass hill, a perfect circle of lilacs surrounding her. May's Flower Moon was high in the sky, shining down brilliantly on the group below. Wolves moved together, bound hand-in-hand, forming a circle around Moira as she lay panting in the center, a sheen of sweat making her skin glisten. Her dark hair was plastered to her face, her eyes snapped from their natural pale blue to a bright alpha red with each painful contraction that shook her frame. Her head fell back as she screamed, a howl preceding it, making the birds scatter from the branches of the trees.

The chanting was loud, it was all she could hear besides the _thud, thud, thud_ of her quickening heartbeat. The grass was prickly against her skin, making her itchy though she could barely find the energy to scratch. A cool breeze rushed past her that would have made any human shiver but it only helped to bring down the temperature of her skin a few necessary degrees. It was a tradition to greet a new child in the same state as them, so she was glad her daughter wasn't coming in February, like her brother had.

Bo's birth had been complicated from the start, with snow cluttering the ground beneath her, chilling her almost too much to bear. But tonight, her naked body didn't have to suffer the cold water of the ground lapping at her skin, only the bite of prickly grass. She wiggled, trying to get more comfortable, and let out a low groan of irritation. But the chanting didn't slow, no attention was given to her directly. This moment was for her to commune with the moon, to ask that it grace her daughter with the same lupine powers she and her pack possessed. It was further important due to her husband being a human, making the chances of their daughter a born wolf only fifty percent. She wouldn't love her any less if she wasn't, but being a wolf was a gift, and she wanted her daughter to have it.

The warmth of a hand on her shoulder caught her attention and she let her head fall back, caught between a smile and a grimace as Gabe bent to sit behind her, inviting her to lean against him.

"It's not safe for you," she reminded, though it didn't stop her from letting her weight rest against his chest, her hands gripping the legs of his pants. With the pain coming and going as it was, it wasn't uncommon for a birthing mother to shift and attack whatever was nearest her. It wouldn't be as bad if Gabe was a wolf, he would suffer, sure, but he would heal. Most humans wouldn't take their chances. However, Gabe was an emissary, or he was before he married her, and so he trusted wolves and his wife more than any natural human could.

"I won't miss the birth of my daughter," he replied in a calm, even tone.

She chuckled, her head falling to his shoulder. "Don't you know you're not supposed to question your alpha, husband?"

He grinned, pressing a kiss to her sweaty, flushed cheek. "I don't think you'd like me half as much if I didn't."

She smiled, staring up at him. "You think I married you for your debate skills?"

"That, and, for a human, I have surprising stamina in bed."

Her laugh echoed around her and her body relaxed along with it. She could still feel their daughter, eager to get out, but she didn't feel so uncomfortable, so tense. Just a few feet away, Bo was sitting curled up in a ball, his arms locked around his legs. He had already shifted, unable to help himself, and so his angular face was patchy with fur, his teeth long and biting into his lower lip, his eyes a bright gold, reflecting in the dark.

Gabe's hand smoothed over Moira's rounded stomach, drawing her attention away from their first born. "How's our girl?" he wondered, his thumb stroking lightly.

"Eager," Moira answered, her toes curling into the earth as she prepared for another contraction. "I think she takes after you."

He chuckled lowly. "I think you mean 'impatient,' and in that case, she's more you than you think."

She rolled her eyes up at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That she's two weeks early, and that's as much you as it is her."

"The only thing I'm impatient for is this pain to stop." She gritted her teeth and dug her fingers into the ground, her nails scoring through dirt and grass and tearing it up as she panted through the agony ricocheting through her lower body and up her spine.

When it finally stopped, she shook her head, exhausted. "How much longer?" she moaned, trying to catch her breath.

Gabe stroked her hair back from her face. "When the medicine woman says it's time, it's time."

"I don't need her to tell me it's time to push, Gabriel!" she exclaimed.

"We agreed she would help you birth this time," he reminded. "After the complications with Bo…"

"I would have healed," she argued.

"You might have, but Bo wouldn't have been so lucky. He was being choked by the umbilical cord…" He shook his head. "We can't take that risk again."

Moira sighed, nodding silently.

Nearby, the medicine woman danced around a fire, chanting words of her own that seemed to feed the flames. She plucked lilacs from the ground around her and tossed them into the fire as she continued to dance, the feathers of her headdress moving along with her. Nya was a spirit talker who reached out from the Native American wolf tribes to help the other packs in their search of higher understanding. It was said she conversed directly with the spirits of past, present and future and could, if she wanted to, tell a wolf what his or her destiny would be. But Nya rarely shared her sight, instead merely helping expectant mothers to birth their children. It was too risky to take them to a hospital, where the pain could cause them to shift. And while emissaries could offer knowledge and herbs to ease some of the pain, they were not properly trained for this. Nya often separated herself from the term 'doula' but she was the most sought after medicine woman when it came to labor.

Suddenly, the fire she had been dancing around flared up high and turned an eye-catching shade of purple before it flickered back to orange. She came running toward them then, far more graceful than a woman her age was expected to be, feathers dancing frantically around her head. She ducked under the arms of the chanting wolves to fall on her knees in front of Moira. "It's now. The pup is coming now. You must not wait!" she ordered.

"Finally," Moira muttered before shifting herself up a little on Gabe.

"Push, wolf mother, push now!"

Though it was rare that she followed someone else's direction, Moira took her advice and bore down, her knees pulled up and spread.

"Yes, yes, that's it."

Several minutes passed, however, of her trying to push and receiving little result. "She's not coming. Please… Please, something must be wrong."

"No, no, this one is born of blood. She is a fighter. She will not fall."

Moira stared at her, blinking against the stinging sweat that kept dripping into her eyes. Her whole body hurt, from head to toe, and it was hard to concentrate on what the woman was telling her, what she was muttering under her breath.

"What?" she asked. "What are you saying?"

"The golden child will be born. She'll know love, know knowledge, she'll excel above others. She will blur the line between wolf and druid. She will be a new breed. A new wolf. A power like no other!" She let out a giggle, half insane in her excitement. "The White Wolf. Bound to the Broken Boy. Destined to meet a Demon Wolf. The hells will rain pain like no other but she will survive. She will fight. And when the day comes, she will bring order again."

Moira stared at her, dizzy and confused. "Wh-what?" she panted.

"Birth her now, wolf mother. Or she will die before she lives."

While she hadn't understood most of what the woman said, she did understand that. Pulling her knees back, she took in a deep breath and _pushed_. She pushed until her lungs, her heart, her entire body shook with the effort. And finally, finally, a cry rang out.

Moira watched, smiling tiredly, as her daughter was raised up to meet the moon, her dark eyes flashing a brilliant gold as she opened them to greet the world. She was lowered, laying in the crook of the medicine woman's arm, who dug her hand into a deer skin bag at her hip and drew a triskele in purple dust along her small chest. The wolves around them threw back their heads and howled, welcoming another to their line. The power that had filled the hill all seemed to crackle in the air then and, one by one, each wolf walked by the medicine woman to gently touch the baby's head, a sign of acceptance, of love and loyalty, and then they filed out, making their way back to the house, where the birth would be celebrated with food and dancing.

The baby gave another cry then, squirming in the hands that held her, and only calmed when the medicine woman finally laid her in her mother's arms, her head resting atop her breast. Moira cupped her tiny head, her skin red and puckered, and felt a tear slip down her cheek as she gazed upon her daughter with reverence.

Gabe's hand rose up to cover her own, his head leaning against hers, and they smiled proudly at their little girl.

"Bo… Bo, come here," Moira entreated, raising a hand for her boy.

He scurried across the grass and took his place at her side, staring down at the baby in her arms with curiosity.

"This is your sister," she told him, squeezing his small hand. "She is your blood and your pack."

He stared a moment longer and then nodded, reaching out to her, his nails still the curved claws of his wolf, but neither of his parents stopped him, instead watching to see what he would do. Carefully, Bo reached a hand out to her and watched as her tiny fingers curled around one of his. A goofy smile broke out over his mouth then as he told them. "She likes me!"

"Of course she does…" Gabe ruffled his hair. "You're her big brother."

Bo seemed to preen at that and smiled down at his sister happily. His brow furrowed though as he wondered, "What's her name?"

Gabe and Moira exchanged a soft smile before they returned their gaze to their daughter. "Chloe… Chloe Anne Sullivan."

"Chloe," he repeated, his mouth pinched up in thought, causing one of his fangs to poke out. "I like it."

Moira wrapped an arm around him, drawing him in close, and kissed his head.

Under the Flower Moon, the White Wolf was born to a loving family, having no idea of the life waiting for her.

Two months later, under the Buck Moon, the Broken Boy was born. Derek Hale greeted the world with a howl and miles across the world, a sleeping baby woke, her eyes flashing a shocking violet before they faded back to gold and finally to a mossy green.

In Beacon Hills, Derek was being shared between his proud parents, who had no idea that two threads of fate wound themselves around his heart, one the black of terrible loss and the other the red of a great love.

[**Next**: Part One.]


	2. An Exceptional Wolf

**Title**: Blue & Gold  
**Series**: Unbalanced (1 of 3)  
**Category**: Teen Wolf/Smallville  
**Genre**: Romance/Drama  
**Ship**: Chloe Sullivan/Derek Hale  
**Chapter Rating**: PG-13/Teen  
**Overall** **Rating**: NC-17/Explicit  
**Word Count**: 7,113  
**Summary**:"The white wolf. Bound to the broken boy. Destined to meet a demon wolf. The hells will rain pain like no other, but she will survive. She will fight. And when the day comes, she will bring order again."

_**Blue & Gold**_

**Chapter One**

_An Exceptional Wolf_

**I**. [1996]

Gabe Sullivan, for all that he had given up his position as emissary, was still steeped in knowledge and power. While he no longer advised the Lane pack, he did offer guidance to his wife. And as their family grew, he thought it prudent to pass on much of what he knew to their children. The most eager to learn was Chloe; she loved all things history, especially anything to do with her own. Her siblings weren't nearly as interested, not unless the stories were of long-lost battles that werewolves waged, pack against pack, or pack against human, or, in some cases, pack against the Greek Gods themselves. It wasn't the blood so much as the honor and the knowledge of what they were born from that Chloe enjoyed. She imagined each word her father told her like ink flowing on a page, sweeping cursive filling out the spaces of her family tree, telling of great aunts and uncles and grandfather's whose howl could fell anyone to their knees. They were her bedtime stories as she grew up, her mind feasting on the wonder and the awe of the wolves that stalked the woods; some protecting, some fighting, others alone and searching for acceptance.

"Mountain ash," Gabe said, looking at his two eldest children, sitting side by side on the sofa in his office.

The bookshelf against the wall was filled to the brim. It seemed he had one for every subject under the sun and could, with exact accuracy, tell her which book belonged to which subject, as if he'd read them so many times they were a part of him. Chloe admired that, even at only ten years old. All of that wisdom inside one person, and someone so willing to share it with any who would listen. But, she supposed, the act of listening was just as important as teaching.

Point in fact, Bo was squirming next to her, eager to get out of lessons. He didn't care for their father's teachings. He enjoyed their mother's instead. Moira focused on their wolf-side; she taught them to fight, to listen to their Instinct, to hunt, and most importantly, to give thanks to the moon for their gift. As an alpha, she was in no way weak of mind or will, but she wasn't as interested in history lessons. She preferred the here and now, preparing for what could be coming, not what had already happened. It was, perhaps, one of the reasons Gabe and Moira worked so well; she was the brawn to his brain, sure, but there was an equal balance of give and take. Like most druids, Gabe had been trained in defense; he was no slouch. He could fight with the best of them and even hold off a werewolf, if necessary. There were tricks of the trade, like the one he brought up now.

Unlike her brother, Chloe shifted forward in her seat because she was eager to share in the lesson, not to get away from it. "_Sorbus scopulina_, also known as Rowan. It creates a barrier against werewolves and it's believed to be a ward against evil."

"How does it work?" Gabe wondered, looking to Bo.

He groaned, his feet shuffling. He hated being put on the spot and, worse, he never studied. "I don't know. Magic."

Gabe sighed, tipping his head. "I'll let that slide if you can give me two ways it creates a barrier against werewolves."

Chloe squirmed in her seat, pursing her lips as she struggled not to answer for him. Gabe gave her a look to keep her quiet but she bit her lip with the effort.

"In a circle. You can put the ash in a circle around a wolf and he can't get out."

"Or she," Chloe corrected.

Bo rolled his eyes. "_Whatever_. The wolf can't get out."

Gabe nodded approvingly. "One more?"

He frowned, his eyes falling as he tried to think about it.

Chloe tapped her finger against the wood table beside her, a distinct pattern that Bo would recognize and her dad would hardly notice. It was their secret knock when they were kids and Bo had built a tree house in the forest. He said he'd only let her in if she learned the knock. After that, it became their way of letting the other know it was them, often to send a message their parents wouldn't notice.

Bo's eyes darted to her hand, though his head didn't move, and finally he breathed a sigh of relief. "If it's built out of it!" he exclaimed. "Mountain ash is a tree, right? So if something's made of out of it, a wolf can't get past, not without a clear path."

Gabe grinned then. "Right. Good job."

Her brother nodded, his eyes soon darting toward the window. It was clear that he would rather be outside. At fourteen, Bo wasn't as keen to sit still when he could be out with friends. And, unlike Chloe, he had plenty of them. All of whom were humans who had no idea what he really was seeing as the only other pack nearby were the Donovans, and they rarely came by the Sullivan house unless it was to beg conference with Moira. Bo was a naturally outgoing person who attracted friends and attention wherever he went. He was a star at every sport he tried his hand at and he excelled in all things physical. It was the book stuff that tripped him up; he didn't care for reading or history or learning anything unless he had to, though he kept a solid B average through school. Then again, Chloe suspected that had something to do with either his coaches pushing the teachers to let him slide or his many girlfriends helping with his homework, but she never said anything.

"Dad, come on, it's Saturday, and me and Jen were supposed to hang out, see a movie or something."

"Or something," Chloe snorted, rolling her eyes.

'See a movie' was essentially 'suck each other's faces off' in Bo-speak, and Chloe had long ago mastered her brother's 'language.' Even if he'd long-ago outgrown her friendship, dubbing her too young to hang out with him and all of his 'cool,' it didn't mean she understood him any less.

He glared at her and looked back at their dad beseechingly. "You can quiz me at dinner."

Gabe exhaled, long and low, but gave a short nod. "Fine. But ask your mom to drive you in this time. Running to town only begs more questions."

Bo jumped from his seat, eager to leave, and half-grinned. "Thanks, pops," he called back, hurrying out of the office.

They could hear his loud footsteps as he ran down the stairs and his holler to their mother, asking (more like demanding) a ride into town. Chloe cringed, waiting for baby Samantha to wake up and give an angry wail, but when it didn't come, she sat back, happy she didn't have to take care of her youngest sister. At only a year old, Samantha was fussy and only seemed to calm down when somebody held her, even if all she did was squirm in whoever's arms she was placed in. Sam was the opposite of Noah, six years older than her and always quiet. Noah preferred the company of books, mostly of the comic variety, and only talked when he felt like it. He was the quietest of all the Sullivan children, but also the most affectionate, often climbing into laps or curling up into the sides of his siblings or parents, seeking out their warmth and companionship. Thinking of her mop-headed brother, she wondered where he was. He didn't often join her and Bo in lessons, but she knew he enjoyed them a lot more than Bo did.

"What about you, Sunshine? You wanna go out and play?" Gabe wondered, drawing her attention back.

She ignored the question and instead asked one of her own. "Why do you think all the stuff used against us grows naturally?"

He cocked his head curiously, a gesture she knew was meant to encourage her to expand on what she was wondering, to find the answer herself.

"I just mean… Wolfsbane and mountain ash are both from the earth, they grow especially to be used against us… If mountain ash has a history of being used against evil and it's used against us, isn't that the same as saying we're evil?" She frowned, chewing on her lip. "But if that's true, I guess that means that anything poisonous to humans means that humans aren't welcome either… Or maybe it's just balance, like you said..." She sighed, shrugging, and resting her elbow on the arm of the sofa. "Do you think if it wasn't, if there was no mountain ash or wolfsbane that the wolves would be stronger? You know, like if they didn't have anything to stop them… Maybe they would evolve even more… Maybe they'd be unstoppable."

He smiled at her thoughtfully. "That's some deep thinking."

Her eyes rose up to meet his and she smiled, shaking her head. "I just wonder sometimes."

He nodded encouragingly. "It's always good to wonder."

Turning in his seat, he returned his attention to the bookshelf and reached out, walking his fingers over the spines until he found the one he wanted and pulled it free. "Page number?"

"Mmm…" She tipped back in her seat, her hands stacking on her stomach. "394."

He thumbed through and opened to the designated page. "Ahh… Solar eclipses." He wiggled his eyebrows at her. "The rare time when your mother can't beat me in an arm wrestling contest."

Chloe giggled.

For the next hour, her father schooled her and not once did she wish she was anywhere else.

* * *

While Chloe's gym teacher would certainly disagree, she actually had a long-time affection for all things physically demanding. It was just that her brother tended to find glory in it, while she enjoyed it for personal reasons. So when she was at school, she did her best not to show off her heightened abilities, decidedly not interested in becoming the leader of any sports teams. Chloe preferred the whistle of the wind through the trees to the loud roar of fans cheering. She'd been on the soccer team when she was younger, but when her coach pushed her one too many times to 'reach and surpass her potential' she decided that she would much rather train at home and leave the trophies and ribbons to Bo.

This, however, was where her extended time spent on fighting came in handy. While Bo was showing off to his peers just how well he could dunk a basketball or throw a baseball, she was in the yard with her mother, pushing herself to block the next hit, roll away from the impending attack, take advantage of every opportunity. She would like to boast that she often won against her mom, but that wouldn't be true. Moira was the best opponent Chloe could ask for, because she never lost. Which meant it was a constant battle, not to prove that she was better, because she wasn't sure she ever could be, but to prove that she was a worthy adversary.

"60 second combinations," Moira ordered and Chloe planted her feet, raising her small fists in the air to attack the hand her mother held out for her to hit. Moira never used pads; she would heal fast enough and she always said a bruise was worth getting if it meant a lesson was learned in the process.

Her mother gave a sharp whistle and it was time to prove herself. She had to hit the hand with as many combinations as she could, trying her best not to repeat them. Between her fists, elbows, knees, and feet, she was impressive, moving too fast for most human eyes, working up a sweat as she moved ceaselessly, never slowing. Finally, she ended it with a headbutt just as her mother whistled that her time had finished.

When she stepped back, she was panting, and smiling.

Moira raised an eyebrow. "Not bad," she admitted.

In alpha speak, that was as good as saying she'd just thoroughly impressed her. With a laugh, Chloe hopped on spot. "Does that mean you'll take me into town for a few spare parts?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows hopefully.

With a tipped head, her mom sighed. "What is your fascination with this? You have to be the only wolf I know who'd rather be shut up indoors, rebuilding a computer, when she could be doing something more productive…"

Rolling her eyes, she screwed up her nose. "Is this because I said I didn't want to be a cheerleader?"

"Chloe, you're athletic, you're fast, and cheerleading will help you polish your flips."

"I can flip off trees here and I don't have to wave pompoms at anyone," she muttered.

"But what about the social aspect of it? Don't you want to make friends?"

"I _have _friends," she complained, plopping down to sit cross-legged on the grass.

"You have Lois…" Moira joined her, sitting directly across from her. "Is something wrong? Did something happen at school?"

"No… And this isn't some after-school special, okay? I just don't see why I have to be like Bo!"

"Who said you have to be like him? I just want to understand why you spend all of your time here, why you're not out there, enjoying yourself…?" She reached across and took Chloe's hands, squeezing them. "The pack is important, I know you know that. But that doesn't mean I want your whole life wrapped around it. You're young, and there is a big world out there that you're not enjoying."

"Maybe I like what I'm doing! I like it here. I like being close to the woods and the family. I like building computers and movies and running and listening to dad's stories. I don't _want_ to be a cheerleader or run track or become the captain of the volleyball team. I just want to be me. And that includes absolutely no pompom waving, okay?"

Slowly, she nodded, a faint smile pulling at her lips. "You also like being stubborn."

"That's not so much a hobby as a talent," she returned with a smirk.

Amused, Moira stood, dusting off the back of her pants. "Well, as talented as you are, why don't you do me a favor and take Noah for a run?"

"Sure." She winked as she hurried off toward the house. "Maybe he'll help me polish up my flips, huh?"

"If you can keep him away from his comic books that long," her mother mused lightly.

Chloe made her way up the stairs to the second floor and jogged to Noah's bedroom. As expected, he was bent over a Spider-Man comic, which she promptly ignored in favor of jumping on his bed, shaking the whole frame enough to dislodge him from the mattress. As he fell to the floor, she laughed and hopped down beside him, landing with one knee bent. "Hey squirt, guess who's been nominated to come running?"

Noah looked up at her and then down at his now creased comic book. "Can we go down by the water?" he wondered hopefully.

Knowing he liked to hop across the rocks, she nodded, holding a hand out to him.

Eagerly, he took her hand and joined her.

As they ran down the stairs, she heard her father shouting after them to be back before dark.

Chloe flipped off the porch to the lawn and then executed a flawless stream of cartwheels and back flips until she reached the tree line.

"Show off!" she heard her mother yell after her, laughter coloring her voice.

She took it as a compliment and rushed after her brother, who ran past her, an exhilarated grin upturning his mouth.

* * *

"They're fast," Gabe mentioned, coming to stand next to his wife, holding out a mug of steaming tea.

Moira looked back at him, nodding as her mind drifted from the moment.

"Did something happen in training?"

"Hm?" She glanced at him and then away. "She's getting stronger. There were a few times… I almost thought she had me."

He grinned proudly, rocking back on his heels. "Looks like all that time she spends on her computer isn't dulling her reflexes after all…"

Humming, Moira acknowledged the comment, but frowned to herself as she moved to take a seat on the cushioned wicker bench that dressed their porch.

"I know that face… That's your deep deliberation face," her husband sighed, following after her.

"It's just curious…"

"What is?"

"She's so fast, for someone so young… Bo didn't keep me on my feet this way, Gabe. He's strong and quick, but Chloe… It's like she's been preparing for a fight her whole life."

"Hasn't she? You've been sparring with her practically since she stood, Moy."

She rolled her eyes up at him. "That's not what I meant…" She leaned back in her seat, lifting her cup to inhale the biting scent of her tea, letting it fill her senses and calm her down. "The Instinct should guide her. If she listens, it should always tell her when to move, to duck, to attack… But sometimes, it's like Chloe's Instinct is stronger than that. Sometimes I think she's preparing for battle. She gets so focused, so determined."

"To win?"

She shook her head. "No. No, Bo fights to win, no matter how many times I tell him that survival is what matters, not winning…"

"And Chloe?"

"She fights because she's a fighter… Because she doesn't know how not to."

"Aren't all wolves?" He shook his head. "Wolves defend themselves, their families. They fight to preserve, to survive, to live."

"Have you ever seen her…? Sometimes I watch her, the way she moves, how she bends, and I don't think it's the Instinct that guides her. I think it's something else… I feel it inside me. It's like she's a gun and someone's finger is waiting to pull the trigger."

"You think our ten year old daughter is a _weapon?_" He scoffed. "Against _who?_"

Her expression slackened, but her eyes were worried as she turned to him. "I don't know… And that scares me."

Gabe went still beside her, a chill running down the length of his spine. He'd known Moira since they were bright-eyed twenty year olds and he could say, with all authority, that there was only one time that she'd ever truly been scared, and that was when they almost lost Bo during labor. Before and after that, she never showed one inkling of fear for anyone or anything. And the idea that she might fear for Chloe sincerely scared him too.

"Moira…" He hugged an arm around her. "She's safe. She always will be with us around."

"She won't always be with us, Gabe." She rested her head atop his shoulder and sighed.

"That won't be for a long time." He rubbed her arm soothingly. "And think of it this way; if she's as fast as you think she is, as strong as you say, then she'll make one hell of an adversary for anyone who tries to take her on."

She nodded, but her eyes stayed on the treeline, her ears listening for her children's heartbeats. Maybe it was the Instinct that told her, maybe it was something else, all she knew for sure was that her daughter was a special breed of wolf, and there were people out there who would do a lot to control her.

"Besides, maybe she's not getting faster… Maybe you're just getting slower," Gabe teased.

Scoffing, she slapped his chest, just hard enough to make him flinch, though he laughed despite the sting. Helpless to it, she smiled, and hoped that she was only being paranoid.

* * *

Bo rolled his eyes from his position seated on the porch stairs. On the grass ahead of him, Chloe and Noah were training together. Or, more accurately, she was mentoring him. While born wolves naturally knew how to fight, an instinct deeply ingrained within them, honing the skill made for a better wolf. Noah was all arms and legs; he was tall for his age and the quietest of them all. In fact, he mostly let his body language do the talking and it usually screamed 'awkward' and 'uncomfortable.' Now was no different, except for one important detail.

Noah stared up at his sister with pure awe. He hung on her every word and listened to her every instruction, moving at the slow pace she encouraged, picking up speed only when he mirrored her exact pose and was throwing a hit the same way she was showing him.

It shouldn't have surprised him seeing as Noah had taken to Chloe from the moment he was born. He had clung to her, growing up with his hand furled in the leg of her pants, using her to guide him through the world as he got his own legs under him. Like a shaky calf, he walked his first steps next to her, searching for her approval in everything he did, and she was always willing to give it to him. Chloe didn't subscribe to the tough love manual that Bo lived by, choosing the sink or swim method over anything else. He wished Noah had been more like him, happy to run head first into anything that faced him, but he was a thinker. He hung back, trying to see things from every angle, before he made a move. And that was only when he didn't have his nose buried in his comic books, giving off a nerd vibe that made Bo glad he was young enough that they wouldn't ever be in the same school at the same time. He loved his little brother, don't get him wrong, but that didn't mean he liked everything about him.

Chloe didn't seem to have the same qualms. She had more patience, at least with the kids. When it came to Bo, it seemed like she had no patience at all. Nobody was going to come knocking at her door offering her sainthood was all he was saying. She was sarcastic and quick to put others in their place with words over fists. But if it came to it, there weren't many he could see beating Chloe in a fight. His mother ranked highest, himself second, and a handful of wolves from neighboring packs might have a chance. It wasn't something one expected to think about their younger sister, but she was a spitfire.

One who was constantly outshining him, even when she didn't try. He didn't think she did it on purpose. She was just naturally talented; book smart as well as wolf smart. Sometimes he wondered if something happened when he was born, if the cord that wrapped around his neck had damaged him somehow. But the more time he spent around other packs, the more he realized he wasn't the odd one. _She_ was. There was just something about her, something that was a little "more" than the other wolves. She was a strategist, focusing not on either offense or defense, but both at the same time.

When she was a little girl, their father used to call her the wolf princess and tell her stories of ancient she-wolves made from the flesh of Amazonian princesses. They were of the highest order, the most beautiful and cunning of wolves. But they'd been wiped out centuries ago, when the balance teetered too far in their direction, making them nearly unstoppable. The hunters had doused them with wolfsbane and slaughtered them as they lay unconscious, from the oldest to the youngest of the pack, not one had survived. But when the hunters fled at the sound of vengeful sister packs, the bodies had been collected and the blood of the fallen had been collected, ritualistically painted on those who stood to avenge them. Legends said that the wolves who wore their blood had been empowered just long enough to kill those who had done wrong by their sisters, before that same power leeched back into the ground, waiting for the next vessel to bear it, the next cause to need it.

Bo remembered being jealous then, wondering why there weren't princes that he could emulate himself after. Where were the kings that wore gilded crowns and made all the other wolves kneel at his feet, eager to please him? But when his father came to his room, he didn't tell stories of wolf kings, wearing the blood of those who stood against him, instead he told stories of acceptance, of honor and loyalty. He spoke of wolves who put others before themselves, who bowed their heads with modesty instead of raising them up for the respect they deserved.

Bo never liked his father's stories. He still didn't. When lessons came, he often wanted to leave. He didn't want to hear about the druids or the werewolves of the past. He didn't want to know how wolfsbane could be used by hunters, he only wanted the basics. A list with bullet points that told him the general facts of what he should look for if he was ever shot or doused and how he could solve the problem. The rest was just empty words taking up space he didn't want to waste. He had things to do, friends to hang out with, crowds to awe with his talent.

But as talented as he was, as popular as he'd always been, it didn't make his little brother look at him with the kind of desperate idolization that he did Chloe. Oddly enough, when Chloe had been Noah's age, _she _used to look at Bo like that. Not anymore, but once upon a time, back when everything he did seemed like the coolest thing she'd ever seen. She'd grown up quickly, though. And maybe her lack of idolization now had something to do with him. He'd stopped spending so much time with her when puberty hit and girls that weren't family suddenly started taking up a large portion of his time.

Still, it stung a little. That he was just regular Bo in Noah's eyes, but Chloe, who used to light up when her big brother entered a room, was the center of Noah's universe.

Which was why he climbed off the stairs and moved toward the duo, eager to prove that he was just as good a fighter, a teacher, as Chloe was. But as he reached them, Noah folded into himself. His arms fell to his sides and his eyes dropped to the ground. Frowning, Bo shook his head. Wolves weren't meant to be meek, but sometimes that's exactly what Noah was. Their mother said it was because he was young, still coming into himself, but Bo didn't think so. He could see Noah ten years from then, still as quiet and reserved as he was now. Which only made it more unusual that he idolized Chloe so much.

Chloe wasn't as reserved as she liked to think. It was a rare moment that she wasn't talking or moving or tinkering with something. She spent a lot of time with her computer, sure, but that didn't mean she was quiet about it. She muttered to herself non-stop. She didn't have a whole lot of friends, preferring to spend her time with her family, but she was always vocal at home. It was the attention outside of the pack that she didn't care for. She wasn't like him, always looking for a spotlight; no, she enjoyed the solitude of the woods and the creature comfort of books and family. But she was also stubborn, out spoken, and extremely defensive, not just of herself but of others. If there was one clear way to get her upset, it was to pick on an underdog. Anybody she deemed unable to fight for themselves, that was where Chloe would be, ready and willing to fight for them.

And that was how Bo knew she'd make a lousy alpha. She was too quick to carry the dead weight instead of getting rid of it. It wasn't like he'd toss his own brother over and kick him out of the pack, blood was blood, but if Noah wasn't his brother, he'd be an omega faster than Bo could blink. Packs were meant to be strong, the power within was what kept an alpha capable of defending them. So when he saw her helping out the scrawny kids getting picked on at her school, he shook his head. The weak were unnecessary. Especially when it came to wolves, they had to be the best of the best, and anything less was unacceptable.

Survival of the fittest.

"He's not going to learn anything if you never put it into action," Bo said, nodding his head down to Noah.

"He's still training," she reminded, placing her hands on her small hips, tipping her head to look up at him. "He has to learn technique first or he'll get hurt."

He snorted. "And then he'll heal." Taking Noah up by the back of his shirt, he carried him a few feet away. "C'mon. Show me what you learned."

Noah rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly looking from his brother to Chloe.

She took a deep breath, her hand raised to her chest, and Noah mimicked her.

Bo could hear his younger brother's heart slow down as he kept breathing, trying to find his inner peace before he moved to attack.

"You think an enemy is going to let you catch your breath?" Bo swiped out, his hand slapping at Noah's head. "He's not going to wait for you to pray. You have to _react_."

Noah's shoulders hunched up in reply and he took a step back, but he was only getting into position.

Bo waited for it, for the lunge and swipe, but it didn't come. Noah merely waited and watched. Brows furrowed, Bo blew out a sigh or frustration. "Well?"

Chloe giggled, drawing his attention. "He's waiting."

"For _what?_"

She smirked, crossing her arms over her chest. "_You_."

"To do what?"

She tipped her head, staring at him through narrowed eyed, and then she moved. Chloe was fast, just that little bit faster than him, or that's what he told himself when she knocked his feet out from under him. As he stared up at her from his back, she grinned. "There are two kinds of fighters, Bo. The kind that attacks and the kind that waits… The one who waits _learns_. Temperament, strategy, and ultimate goal. Does that attacker get frustrated easily? Do they plan their attacks? Did they go for a killing strike or just to wound…?" She shook her head down at him and then held a hand out for him to take, offering to bring him back to his feet. "Impatience only teaches you what _not _to do."

With that, she turned on her heel, slung her arm around Noah's shoulders, and led him back to the house.

Bo glared after her, kicking the grass with his foot and huffing. It was only made worse when Noah tipped his head back and smiled at her, like she'd impressed him again and she always would.

Turning on his heel, he stomped off toward the woods to release some pent up frustration. One day, he was going to show her, show all of them, that he was a better wolf than she could ever be.

One day he'd be alpha and she would look at him with awe again.

* * *

Chloe's worst attribute was her aptitude for snooping. She preferred to blame it on the fact that her parents had taught her how to track and often reminded her to always be aware of those around her, just in case they turned out to be an enemy. So, in proper snoop fashion, she twisted those words to mean she should always know what was going on, whether others wanted her to or not. This was how she knew that Bo was doing a lot more than just making out with his current girlfriend, Lacey. How she knew her teacher secretly preferred wearing what people considered 'ladies clothing.' And how she knew that her Aunt Ella, her cousin Lois' mother, one of the few humans in the Lane pack, hadn't died from illness like the kids had been told, but because when she finally agreed to take the bite, it hadn't taken.

Sometimes, Chloe kept these secrets to herself, just collecting information for the sake of knowing it. Other times, if that information could be used to help someone, she shared it, usually with her parents. And, admittedly, a few times she told her parents things because she was annoyed with her brother and felt like he deserved to be in trouble. She was no angel, as Bo often liked to point out. Her dad said it was because everything was meant to be balanced, that no one person was completely good or completely bad. And, while she grew up, it made sense. But then, she always took what her dad said at face value. To her mind, he could do no wrong.

But the idea of balance sometimes confused her. If Ella, someone sweet and kind and loving had died, how did that balance out in the world? How did the world make up for Lois's pain, for the nights that Lucy spent crying in her pillow, begging her daddy to bring back her mom? How did it balance if the Lane pack fell apart at her loss? She knew her uncle Sam had started spending more time at work, that he was keeping his sister and her pack at arm's length. Lois was born a human, but Lucy was a wolf, and Moira had warned, time and time again, that she needed the guidance of another wolf to keep her in line. But Uncle Sam was too deep into his grief to listen to her and now he was moving them far out of reach, taking his daughters with him while he lived on an ARMY base.

Chloe tried to understand. She tried not to be angry that her uncle was taking away her cousins. But Lois was her best friend, her only confidant, and she didn't want to lose her. So when she found out that Sam was planning to leave, she didn't keep it to herself, she ran through the woods, across the highway, and through the acres of trees until she found the small house that the Lane family had lived in. It was quiet and empty, not like it had been when Ella was alive, full of warmth. There were no lights on, no scent of dinner simmering away, no soft humming coming from the matriarch of the family.

Chloe burst through the house without knocking and ran straight for Lois' room, stopping with her heart stuttering in her chest as she found her cousin curled up on the floor, an open suitcase beside her.

"You already knew?"

Lois looked up, wiping at her face with her arm, leaving snot and tears all over the sleeve. "He just told me. He said we had to go tonight."

Making her way over slowly, Chloe plopped down beside her and hugged her knees to her chest. "Maybe we could talk to my mom… If Uncle Sam's gonna be working all the time, maybe he'll let you and Lucy stay with us," she suggested hopefully. "You can share my room and Lucy can stay in Noah's. He won't mind."

She shook her head slowly, a faint smile tugging at her lips. "What about my dad?"

"He can write and visit and mom'll take you to see him whenever you want, I promise."

Lois tipped her head and turned to Chloe, only a year older than her but looking so much wiser. _Did that happen when you lost a parent?_ Chloe wondered. Lois seemed so much more grown up in the last year. So much emptier and quieter. Chloe couldn't imagine what it felt like not to have her mom anymore. But Moira was an alpha, she was so much stronger than humans, who only seemed fragile from where she was sitting. Both Ella and Lois were so much more breakable than the rest and that scared her.

"I can't leave him, Chlo… Not after mom. He's… He's not the same anymore. He's so sad and angry. But he's my dad…" She stared at her searchingly. "I'm sorry."

Chloe shook her head, though her eyes burned with tears. "It's okay," she said, repeating herself when Lois didn't seem to believe her. She forced a smile and reached over to hug her cousin, pulling her in tight to her side. "So we'll write a lot, okay? We can be like pen-pals. We'll write all the time and call and you'll tell me all about the base, especially the top secret stuff we're not supposed to know about."

Lois laughed, but it was tearful, and she buried her face against Chloe's shoulder. "I'm gonna miss you."

"Maybe you won't be gone long, right?" She rubbed her shoulder. "Maybe Uncle Sam just needs some time away from here. It's gotta be hard, living here, after everything…"

She nodded jerkily.

"So who knows, maybe it'll just be a few months or a year, and then you'll be home again."

Lois let out a shaky breath and then swallowed tightly. "You know what I keep thinking though?"

"What?"

"I keep… I keep wondering… What if she was like you guys…?" She lifted her head and looked at Chloe. "If she was a wolf, she wouldn't've died, right? She'd still be here with me." Her face crumbled as she broke down crying again and Chloe held her close, stroking her hair.

It was in that moment that Chloe questioned whether her snooping really did benefit her, because now she was at a crossroads. If she told Lois that her mother died because she _had _accepted the bite and it didn't take, then Lois might hate wolves, might hate _her _for being the reason her mother died. But at the same time, she didn't want to lie. She hated lying, it was why she put so much energy into digging up the truth, whether others wanted her to know it or not. But as Lois sobbed in her arms, she made a selfish decision to do what she always looked down on others for. She kept what she'd learned to herself and let Lois go on living with what she thought to be true. And even as she did, she knew she would regret it, that one day, like most things, it would come to light, and she would have hurt somebody she dearly loved.

But, in her father's wise words, there was always a lesson to be learned in every mistake. She just wasn't sure what it was yet.

* * *

That night, long after they'd waved goodbye to Sam, Lois, and Lucy, though the pain of losing them still weighed heavy on everyone, Chloe climbed into bed, head resting on her pillow, and stared at the picture of her and Lois that sat kitty-corner on her bedside table.

"She'll always be part of your life," she heard and turned to see her mother standing in the doorway. Moira smiled gently as she crossed the room, taking a seat on the edge of her bed and gazing at the same photo fondly. "Sometimes, distance can be good… It allows you to grow into yourself, find who you are as an individual."

"What if she forgets about me?" she wondered meekly. "What if she just stops writing and she makes new friends, _human _friends?"

"She'll make friends," she admitted, "but it won't change how much she loves you." She stroked Chloe's hair off her face tenderly. "Real friendships, the kind that make your soul better, they stay with you… A little distance won't ruin them."

"How do you know?" Chloe turned watery eyes on her, brow furrowed.

"Because my best friend is on the other side of the country and she never misses my call."

"Talia," she said knowingly.

Moira nodded, smiling. "You know I've known Talia since I was younger than you are now… I remember playing with her as a little girl, running through the trees, meeting up every year for the Wolf Moon. And even when we were miles apart, she always wrote me, she always thought of me, and I never once forgot about her."

"Can she shift like you? Can she turn into a real wolf?"

"We're all real wolves, Chloe. Some of us can just take on the image a little more accurately."

"But can she do it?"

Moira nodded. "It's a rare thing, to be able to shift completely… Neither of us knew we could until we were alphas."

Her lips pursed thoughtfully. "Do you think Bo will shift like that?" she wondered.

"I'm not sure." She turned her attention to tucking the blanket in around her, pulling it right up to under Chloe's chin. "Like I said, it's rare. So neither of you should feel any less special if you can't."

Chloe shrugged. "I hope he does."

"Oh?"

Her nose wrinkled. "He talks too much. Maybe if he shifts into a full wolf, he'll shut up."

A laugh escaped her before she could help it, but she shook her head. "He's your brother…" she reprimanded.

"Lois used to say he was full of so much hot air that one day he'd just float away," she admitted, giggling.

"_Chloe_…" She clucked her tongue, but smiled lightly as she stood. "Be nice to him," she ordered before leaning down to kiss her forehead.

Chloe merely rolled her eyes and turned onto her side, casting one last sad smile at Lois' picture.

Moira moved to the door, reaching for the light switch, pausing only when her daughter called for her.

"Will you tell me more about Talia? I like your stories about her."

Moira nodded. "Tomorrow…" She grinned. "I'll tell you about the time she accidentally got herself caught and thrown in the dog pound."

Chloe chuckled lightly and snuggled into bed.

Smiling to herself, Moira flicked off the light before she left, leaving the door open just a crack.

That night, Chloe dreamt of Talia Hale, the woman she knew only from pictures and stories, and hoped one day she might meet her.

[**Next**: Part II.]

* * *

**Author's Note**: _Thank you to **nitefang, Flpirate305, TessFan, Nienna Tinehtele**, and **Booklover947** for reviewing! Obviously Smallville/Teen Wolf crossovers aren't widely written, so it means a lot that you took the time to read and review. I'm sure you're all eager to see Derek, so the next chapter is all him. These first two chapters are really just kind of digging into their families and dynamics, giving more meat to the characters. The majority of this story is already finished on my computer, so no worries about updates. _

_Thanks for reading. Please leave a review!_

**- Lee | Fina**


	3. The Boy Before the Break

**Title**: Blue & Gold  
**Series**: Unbalanced (1 of 3)  
**Category**: Teen Wolf/Smallville  
**Genre**: Romance/Drama  
**Ship**: Chloe Sullivan/Derek Hale  
**Chapter Rating**: PG-13/Teen  
**Overall** **Rating**: NC-17/Explicit  
**Word Count**: 8,141  
**Summary**: "The white wolf. Bound to the broken boy. Destined to meet a demon wolf. The hells will rain pain like no other, but she will survive. She will fight. And when the day comes, she will bring order again."

**_Blue & Gold_**

**Chapter Two**

-_The Boy Before the Break_-

**II**. [1999]

Derek didn't like fighting.

As Laura threw him off of her again, letting him roll across the grass, bouncing roughly against the hard earth, he groaned, giving his head a shake. If it was up to him, he'd rather be doing homework, but they had training every day and he was required to take part. Sometimes, he didn't think it was the fighting that he disliked so much as the losing. But when his opponent was always his older sister, there wasn't much leaning in his favor. Laura was three years his senior at sixteen; she was quick, smart, and eager to prove herself, which meant Derek spent a lot of time being thrown around and reminded that he was a pathetic opponent.

"You need to block," Laura told him, her hands on her hips as she paced back and forth on the other side of the yard. "You always forget to put your arm up; it's why I always get you."

"Really?" he muttered, rolling his eyes. "I thought it was because you keep kidney punching me before Peter says to go."

She smirked, flashing white canines at him. "Real fights don't start at the bell, Der, you should know that."

Pushing himself up, he twisted and turned his torso, wincing at the lingering pain. "And punching me in the kidneys?"

"That's just good strategy," she replied with a shrug.

"She has a point," Peter called from his lounging position on the stairs, elbows behind him.

"Why don't _you _fight her then?"

He grinned. "And get my ass kicked? No thanks. I have better preservation skills than that."

Derek snorted, moving back toward Laura, all the while knowing he was only going to be eating grass and dirt again in a few minutes.

"Look a little more enthusiastic," his sister told him, getting into position, her body arched down a little, one leg extended back, her hands out as if she were going to tackle him. Frankly, he wouldn't be surprised if she did; she was fond of putting him in a headlock until he passed out, no matter how many times their dad told her to knock it off. "Every time you go down, you should be learning something."

"I am," he said blandly. "I'm learning I should become a pacifist."

Laura snorted. "What kind of wolf would that make you?"

"One that isn't _sore_," he muttered.

"Overrated," she dismissed before wiggling her eyebrows. "Now come on… Show me that move dad taught you yesterday."

Derek sighed, but moved into position. When it came to fighting, Laura usually worked with their mom while he sparred with their dad. It wasn't really a separation of genders, despite how it looked; Laura would be alpha when their mother decided to pass it on, so some of her skills needed to be refined. She was taught lessons while she sparred, forced to put both her mental and physical strength to work. Derek, on the other hand, got to horse around with his dad, which generally meant laughing as they wrestled in the grass. It was always less painful than taking on Laura, who aimed to put him down and keep him down. Unlike his eldest daughter, Royce Hale was less eager to use actual violence to teach his kids. Obviously, Derek knew who he would rather be sparring at the moment.

Still, when Laura came for him, he reflected on the move his dad taught him and, in the split second before Laura got her hands on him, he ducked low, knocked her knees out from under her and slammed his shoulder into her stomach, flipping her onto her back before he cartwheeled out of reach, landing in a crouch a few feet away. While momentarily shocked, she was quick to retaliate, flipping herself back onto her feet and turning on him with a snarl.

Peter laughed in the background, enjoying the show.

But when Laura took a swipe at Derek, her claws tearing his shirt open and peeling his skin apart, Peter's laughter faded, a look of pure concentration crossing his face.

It wasn't often that Laura lost control, but she did tend to put winning at the top of her necessities list. Derek always thought it was because she was supposed to become the alpha, that she felt she had to be the absolute best in order to fill the role. Destined for a life of being a beta, he hadn't felt the same push to always outdo those around him, especially not his siblings. He was content with where he was, although he'd prefer to be less bruised.

He leapt back out of her reach, stumbling a little when she just kept coming. Unlike her, he wasn't upset, so he didn't have the surge of adrenaline coursing through him that might guide his movements a little faster. His Instinct was telling him to run, to use Peter as a shield even, but his feet only stumbled back, until he slipped on one of Dillon's toys and fell, landing abruptly on his back.

A seething Laura lunged at him and his arm came up to shield his face, while his body turned, seeking cover. But the attack was never finished and, when he opened his eyes, he found his father was the reason why. Royce had caught Laura by the back of her shirt and was holding her mid-air, dangling from his grip. He was a tall, broad man, with muscle packed over his upper torso and down his arms. He hefted his daughter easily, tossing her backwards so she landed on her butt, giving her head a shake until she was no longer shifted. He raised a thick black eyebrow at her and she ducked her head sheepishly. But he didn't hold a grudge, instead he grinned widely, showing off pearly white teeth under his scruffy black beard.

Holding a large hand out for his son, Royce nearly picked Derek right up off the ground, giving his hair a ruffle before he walked back toward the house, shouting a lighthearted, "Play nice," over his shoulder.

Dusting himself off, Derek looked warily back at Laura, who had pushed back up to her feet.

She pursed her lips at him and muttered, "Sorry," before she turned on her heel and went for a run, her usual way of shaking off the bad energy.

With a sigh, he walked over to the porch and took a seat beside Peter. "Any chance she won't kidney punch me tomorrow?" he wondered hopefully.

With a laugh, Peter smirked down at his nephew. "If anything, she'll do it harder."

Morosely, he dropped his chin down onto his palm and frowned ahead of him.

"Come on…" Peter stood from the stairs and nodded his head. "I promised you a game of one-on-one yesterday…"

As they turned the corner on the house, Derek grinned as he scooped up the basketball laying in the grass. He might not like fighting, per se, but he definitely liked sports, and this one happened to be his best. Which, he was sure, was why Peter picked it. While his uncle liked to act unimpressed and often just amused by his nieces and nephews, Derek knew he cared about them. In fact, he'd venture to guess he was Peter's favorite, and that was an all right place to be in his books.

He tossed the ball toward Peter, who caught it easily, dribbling it without much thought. "First to twenty wins?"

Derek nodded agreeably.

It was no surprise when he won, although Peter maintained that he _let _him.

* * *

Dinner was always loud, between Dillon and Cora vying for attention, Laura fighting over the largest piece of meat on the table, and Royce laughing at the chaos, it was only Derek and Talia who sat back, waiting for everything to die down before they took anything for themselves. It wasn't patience on Derek's part so much as self-preservation, getting in the middle of all that would only lead to trouble. Laura had stabbed him in the hand once for reaching for the steak she'd called as her own. He hadn't heard her over the shouting between Dillon and Cora but apparently that hadn't mattered.

This time, however, before anybody reached for anything, Royce banged a fist down on the table so hard that the plates and cutlery rattled. It immediately drew everyone's attention, their hands still outstretched toward the large plate of roast beef and the bowl of mashed potatoes waiting within reach.

"We have a tradition at dinner…" he told them, his voice booming, demanding attention. "Your mother eats first."

Laura was the first to catch on, her eyebrows hiking. "You're not!?" she exclaimed.

Dillon was pouting. "But mom's the slowest," he complained.

Derek slapped him upside the back of his head and rolled his eyes.

Leaping out of her chair, Laura circled the table to hug their mother, squeezing her around her shoulders. "Can't say I wanted another one, but congratulations."

It dawned on Derek suddenly, his eyes falling to Talia's stomach. "You're pregnant," he said, feeling stupid for not catching on earlier. It was a pack tradition that pregnant mothers always ate first and ate the most.

Talia smiled at him gently, giving a small nod. "I am."

Royce laughed happily, reaching over to place his large hand on her still flat stomach. "It'll be twins this time, I can feel it," he told her proudly.

She shook her head, amused by his long-time desire for twins.

"Does that mean she gets dessert first too?" Dillon wondered.

Derek elbowed him.

"Ow, _what? _I was just wondering…" he muttered, rubbing his ribs.

Talia laughed lightly, reaching over to cup Dillon's chin. "Is my wolf starving?"

"Feels like it."

"Whatever, I saw you cramming cookies in your mouth an hour ago," Laura told him, moving back to her seat.

Talia's eyes narrowed knowingly at him. "Those wouldn't be the same cookies I told you not to eat until after you did your homework, would they?"

Face screwed up with guilt, Dillon slumped in his chair. "_Maybe…_"

She lifted her chin, staring down at him sternly. "And your homework?"

"It's… _mostly _done…"

"Uh-huh…" She clucked her tongue and then held a hand out for the plate of roast beef her husband handed to her. When she was finished putting a few slices on her plate, she waved it back in Royce's direction. "Just for that, you'll fill your plate last."

Dillon let out a huff of breath in complaint. "But—"

"What're the rules?" she interrupted.

"No lying, stealing, cheating, or killing. And also don't put hair dye in Laura's shampoo bottle…" At his sister's cleared throat, he smirked. "Or conditioner."

"Right. And you promised me that you would finish your homework, which you didn't, so there are consequences."

"But I was _almost _done," he sighed, watching morosely as the roast beef was handed person to person, dwindling quickly.

"Almost isn't completely, which means you still lied."

"That's dumb," he muttered.

"The plate is _almost _to you, Dillon. If it stopped right now, will you have eaten?"

He frowned. "No."

She stared at him, her brows raised.

"All right, fine. I'm sorry I lied. I won't do it again. And I'll do my homework right after dinner, I swear."

Derek waited for her to nod, holding the plate with its last few slices of roast beef just out of Dillon's reach. Seconds passed, all of which were spent watching Dillon squirm, and then Talia nodded. He blew out a relieved breath and took the plate quickly from Derek, scooping the last of it onto his plate. He was still the last to get anything handed to him, but he wasn't complaining anymore, seeming instead to take his mother's word into consideration.

The rest of dinner was spent talking about the coming baby. Peter bet it was a girl and soon had everyone betting on what day it would be born and how much it would weigh. Derek stayed quiet, focusing on his dinner, not completely sure how he felt about the new addition to the family. He liked his brother and sisters just fine, but he knew adding one more was going to change the dynamics again. When Cora was born, he'd been 8, Dillon's age, and Laura had taken on a lot of responsibility for her, changing her diapers and putting her down for naps. Their mother had been exhausted the first few months, napping frequently. Cora was just as loud as a baby as she was now, constantly demanding attention and making noise. And with Talia putting more emphasis on Laura's alpha training, Derek worried he'd be the one taking care of the new baby when his dad couldn't. It was hard enough feeling like he was responsible for Dillon and Cora, and they were old enough that he didn't have to have his eyes on them all the time. He didn't know how his parents or Laura did it, or why they would want to be an alpha. Who would want to have that must responsibility on their shoulders?

When dinner finished, he gathered up the plates to do the dishes. He and Laura usually traded off but, despite it being her night, he decided to do them himself. Chores were a regular thing around the Hale house. Each of them had their duties and he'd never really questioned it. He got a weekly allowance that he tended to save up for things, mostly sports memorabilia and equipment. But he didn't mind chores, not like Laura, who found them a waste of time, or Dillon, who only ever half-assed them. Even Cora tried to avoid them, but he thought that was because she was so young and so easily distracted. Last week, when she was supposed to be tidying up the living room, he found her painting her nails while she sat on the coffee table. There were stacks of things she had piled up to put away, but apparently she'd found a bottle of nail polish she'd left lying around and that was as far as she got in her chores that afternoon.

For Derek, it was as good chance to think. Dillon was up in his room, finishing up his homework, and he could hear Cora in her bedroom, dancing to a mix tape she had Laura make for her. His older sister, he knew, was jogging. She always did after dinner. And she'd probably stop by her girlfriend's house before she headed back home. She and Julia had been dating for two years and she took every chance she got to hang out with her. Julia didn't know about their family secret and so she wasn't often invited out to the house, mostly because Dillon and Cora still occasionally shifted, never thinking of who could see them. Derek liked her though; she was the exact opposite of how he saw his sister. Julia was nice and soft spoken, she was always gentle and friendly. Laura, on the other hand, Derek saw as brisk, forward, and often loud and demanding. But every once in a while, he'd see her with Julia, whispering like they were in their own little world, and something soft would cross his sister's otherwise hard face.

Shaking his head of Laura, he focused back on the dishes, wondering briefly where his parents were. He got his answer when he drained the sink and grabbed up a tea towel to start drying the dishes off. His dad was sitting in a chair at the table, head leaned back, hands stacked over his chest. If Derek hadn't been able to hear his heart and the not quite even set of his breathing, he might've thought Royce was sleeping. Still, rather than say anything, he turned toward the stack of dishes and started wiping them down before he put them away in their proper place.

"You were quiet at dinner," his father's voice said, ending the peace he'd come to enjoy.

"Usually am," he replied.

"You excited then? To have another brother or sister coming?"

He pursed his lips, staring down at the plate in his hand, and shrugged.

Royce sighed, pushing up from the table. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong…" He crossed the room and leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. The plaid shirt he was wearing stretched over his chest and around his bulging biceps. But for all that Royce looked like an intimidating man, Derek had never known him to use that against his children.

"I don't know how I feel," he admitted.

"You were happy when Cora came along. What makes this time different?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I'm older."

"And?" He stared at him, waiting for him to figure it out rather than leading him to the conclusion.

"Sometimes I feel like they're my responsibility. Dillon and Cora. And it freaks me out, because… what if I screw up?"

He nodded slowly. "So you're worried that another baby means more responsibility, and you're not sure you're handling it as it is?"

Derek sighed, turning back to the dishes. "It's stupid."

"They _are _your responsibility."

He looked back, his brows hiked.

"But only to a degree," he amended. "Family is family, Derek. You protect your own, you love them, you give them the tools to do and be the best they can… You watch out for them and guide them, but things happen and you might not always be able to keep them from making mistakes." He shrugged. "Cora and Dillon look up to you, and you've never let them get hurt. You would protect them with your life, I know that, and so do you."

He nodded. He would too. He would give his life for any one of his family members.

"But you're not the only one watching out for them, all right? I'm their dad, and I'll do everything I can to keep them happy and safe, just like I did for you and Laura. Me and your mom, we're the parents. We don't expect you to pick up our slack, just help us out where you can. So if the baby needs her big brother to rock her back to sleep, then yeah, maybe I'll ask you to do that. But you have a life too and I want you to live it."

"Okay," he murmured, looking up at his dad from the corner of his eyes.

"Good." With a grin, Royce grabbed up a towel and joined him, helping him to dry the last of the dishes and put them away. And when they were finished, he put Derek in a playful headlock before ruffling his hair into a complete mess, all the while laughing as his son struggled to get free. When he finally let go, Derek was red faced and glowering at him.

"Dad…" he complained, reaching up to fix his hair.

Walking past him, he gave him a hard pat to the back. "You have homework?"

He shrugged. "A little."

"Go get it done," he ordered, before moving into the living room.

Derek walked slowly toward the stairs, glancing back over to see his dad lift his mom right up off the couch before he took her seat and settled her into his lap. Not the least bit surprised, Talia merely rested against him, still holding the book she'd been reading. Royce kissed her hair before he rested his chin on her shoulder, reading the book with her as his hands rubbed affectionate circles on her stomach.

Leaving them to their moment, Derek climbed the stairs two at a time, making his way down the hall to his bedroom. He still wasn't sure how it was going to be when the baby was born, but he wasn't as worried about it anymore. Whatever happened, he was going to be the best big brother he could be.

* * *

A knock at his door drew Derek's attention and he paused in his sit-ups, his arms still tucked behind his head. When the door creaked open, he looked over to see Laura leaning there, her arms crossed over her chest. "Can we talk?" she asked.

He shrugged, sitting forward to rest his arms on his knees.

Closing the door behind her, she crossed the room, plopping down on his bed. "So I wanted to talk to you about the other day, when we were fighting…"

He raised an eyebrow and she blew out an annoyed breath.

"You know, when I almost slashed your throat for getting the drop on me…?"

He half-smiled, ducking his head in amusement. "Right. That."

Rolling her eyes, she sat forward. "Look, I know you think I'm being a jerk to you, that I'm picking on you or something, but that's not why I do it."

"So you're kidney punching me for my benefit?" he asked sarcastically.

"Kind of, yeah."

With a sigh, he stared at her, waiting on an explanation.

"You spar with dad, and that's great, but dad likes to think that if there was ever a real fight, he'd deal with it. Maybe it's because he was supposed to be an alpha before he met mom, but it's like he's prepared to take on any enemy that comes after us… And that'd be fine, he's our dad, I get it, but the point of being in a pack is that there's strength in numbers, and we want to protect each other just as much as he wants to protect us…" She stared at him searchingly. "All I'm saying is, you need to be prepared. Because when a fight comes, and it will, dad might not be there to stop them before they get at your throat."

He frowned. "You think that'll really happen though…? I thought the packs were getting along."

"There's always peace before there's chaos, Derek." She shook her head. "The point is, keeping your head down and hoping for the best doesn't make the world a better place."

"So you think I need to train more."

"I think you need to train _harder_…" She frowned at him. "I know you think I'm being a bitch, but I just don't want to see you get hurt." She pushed up from his bed and started across the room, reaching over to ruffle his hair in the way she knew he hated, and smirked as she sauntered out of reach. "You're my baby brother, and if keeping you alive means kicking your ass, then I'll do it every single day." With a wink, she walked out of his room, and he glared at the open door.

"You know you have two brothers, right? And he's younger than me!" he shouted after her.

"You're always gonna be a baby in my eyes," she called back laughingly.

Rolling his eyes, he fell back to the floor and decided to burn off his irritation with exercise.

If she wanted him to prove he could handle himself in a fight, he would. He didn't think one was coming, but Laura was rarely wrong, and if she thought peace would only last so long, then he wanted to be prepared for war.

* * *

Derek had just pulled his bike around to the front when he spotted Cora, bouncing on the tips of her toes hopefully. Sighing, he raised an eyebrow, climbing on his bike when he got closer.

"What?"

"Dad said you were going into town."

"Yeah. And…?"

"I want ice cream," she said bluntly.

"Do you have any _money _for ice cream?" he wondered.

She shook her head. "Nope. You do though. You save it up."

"Yeah, for _me_…"

"_Please_, Derek." She hopped on spot, her hands clasped under her chin.

"Fine." He rolled his eyes. "But go get Dillon. And tell Laura we're going."

"She's not here. She's on a date with Julie," she called back as she ran across the lawn, shouting Dillon's name so loud he nearly cringed.

Sitting back on his seat, he frowned. He'd been hoping to ride around alone for a while, maybe see if any of the guys were at the arcade. It was almost a guarantee that Billy would be up for a game of air hockey. Instead, now he had a little brother and sister to keep an eye on. It didn't usually bother him. He didn't mind keeping an eye on them; they usually behaved. But sometimes he just needed time away from the family. Even Peter. It was hard to find any time alone in a house full of energetic wolves.

Dillon hopped off the porch to the lawn, bypassing the stairs, and circled around the house to grab his own bike before joining Derek. While Cora had a bike, she was still small enough that it would take too long to wait for her to catch up, so instead he hauled her up onto the bars of his bike and started pedaling. There was a clear path through the woods that led down to the highway. Derek had Dillon ride ahead of him so he could keep an eye out and they made their way into town easily enough. There weren't many drivers on the road that day, and for that he was thankful. Despite the fact that they would all heal if they were hit by a car, it didn't mean it would hurt any less. Even just the faint sound of an approaching car made his heart speed up, so he made Dillon pull over and wait for vehicles to pass each time, ignoring how Dillon rolled his eyes and complained. He wasn't risking it.

When they finally got into town, their first stop was the ice cream shop. Cora had talked non-stop on the ride about all her favorite flavors, deliberating out loud over which one she was going to have. And then, eyes much larger than her stomach, decided to tell him she was going to have five scoops, because she just couldn't pick.

After locking their bikes up, Derek led them inside with Cora seated on his shoulders. He had to duck through the door so she wouldn't hit her head, which only made her giggle, her hands frequently pinching his cheeks and covering his eyes, just because she knew it annoyed him.

"You know I'm _buying_, right?" he reminded, shrugging his shoulders to bounce her up abruptly.

Not the least bit worried, she nodded. "Can I get a waffle cone too, Derek? With the chocolate and the sprinkles?"

Sighing, he rolled his eyes. "If you're getting that, you're only getting one scoop."

"But there's so many…" she pouted, bending over his head to peer inside the glass cover to the ice cream below.

"Dillon, what are you getting?" Derek wondered.

"Double scoop of Tiger Tail," he answered back, knocking his knuckles against the counter.

"Bowl or cone?" the server asked.

"Bowl."

"C'mon, Pipsqueak, you've gotta pick already," Derek told his sister.

"Mm…" Cora tugged on his right ear to get him to walk in that direction, letting her see some of the other colorful buckets. "What kind's the blue one, with the nuts?" she wondered, pointing.

He peered down at the sticker and told her, "Pistachio almond. You don't like almonds."

"But it's blue."

"Cor, you don't like almonds. You're not getting it…" He started moving back the way he came. "You want blue, get Bubble Gum. Or get Cotton Candy, it's got pink in it too."

"Cotton Candy is purple, not blue."

"Whatever," he muttered. "Just get something."

"I waaant…" She slumped, resting her arms atop his head and leaning on them. "I want Bubble Gum," she decided, nodding.

"Okay, great." He pointed at the Bubble Gum. "One scoop in a waffle cone."

"With sprinkles and chocolate," she added loudly.

Derek nodded, waving a hand up at her.

She wiggled happily as her ice cream was made and he reached up to grab her off his shoulders, dropping her down to her feet. When her waffle cone was handed to her, he gave her back a push to get her to walk over to the table Dillon was sitting at, people-watching out the window. "I'll get a scoop of Rocky Road in a bowl," he said before walking over to the till, digging out his wallet as he went.

After paying, he took his bowl, and joined his siblings at the table. Cora was sitting on her knees, her mouth and cheeks covered in ice cream.

Derek frowned.

Dillon snorted. "You're gonna have to clean her up before we go."

"Yeah, or _you _will," he replied, digging his spoon into his ice cream.

"Derek, can we go to the park after this?" Cora hoped.

"After. We're going to the arcade first."

Dillon perked up. "Do you have change for five dollars?" he wondered.

"If you had five bucks, why was I buying ice cream for you?"

He grinned cheekily. "You didn't ask."

Muttering under his breath, he dug out his wallet and found four loonies and four quarters. Before he handed them over, though, he held out a hand for the five. Dillon dug it out of his pocket and handed it over before scooping up his change.

"What about me?" Cora wondered with a pout. "I wanna play, too."

"I'll set you up when we get there," he assured before leaning back in his seat.

Aside from some bickering between Dillon and Cora, time went by quickly. Cora ate most of her ice cream, but eventually made Derek finish it because she didn't want it to go to waste. He had Dillon take her into the bathroom to wash up before they started the trek over to the arcade. They left the bikes where they were, assuming the arcade bike ramp would be full.

Derek took Cora's hand as they walked, while Dillon walked on her other side, his hands tucked into his pocket even though Cora kept tugging at his wrist. "You have to hold my hand, Dill. It's mom's rules."

As they reached the curb, Derek hiked her up by her arm so she swung onto the sidewalk, making her laugh happily. They walked past familiar shop fronts, from the small organic grocery store that his mom preferred to the sports equipment outlet that his dad took him to on weekends, until finally they were at the arcade, bustling with kids of all ages. The inside was loud with the sound of voices and machines. Dillon took off as soon as they stepped inside, his pocket jingling with change. Following after him with less enthusiasm, Derek found Dillon by Pacman before he went off to see if any of his friends were around.

"I want to play, too," Cora told him, tugging on his hand.

"In a minute. If Billy's here, you can help me beat him at air hockey."

Content with that, she helped him look for his friend, a tall, loud kid with a cigarette permanently tucked behind his ear. He finally found him by one of the boxing consoles and nodded his head in greeting.

"Hale, what's up dude?" He pulled off the gloves and put them back before he raised an eyebrow at Cora. "And who's the princess?"

"I'm Cora," she told him, lifting her chin proudly. "And we're gonna beat you at air hockey."

Billy laughed. "That right?"

Derek shrugged.

"All right, let's put it to the test then…" He walked toward the air hockey tables, assuming they followed.

The next hour was spent with Cora sitting on the edge of the air hockey table, attempting to help him win against Billy. They were interrupted a few times by Dillon, who needed more change and had no qualms about using Derek's.

When they clock struck five, however, he knew it was time to start heading back. So he said goodbye to Billy before he hauled Cora up onto his side and searched out Dillon. Before his brother could beg a few more quarters off of him, he nodded his head toward the door and, together, they made their way out. They walked back over to the ice cream shop to get their bikes and started the trek back into town, only now Dillon was the one talking non-stop about the games he played and the high scores he'd reached.

"Why'd you call yourself Dillinator?" Cora wondered, her nose scrunched up.

"'Cause, it's like Terminator. I killed all the other scores and now mine's the best."

"So if I did it, I'd be Corinator?"

"Yeah, but you won't, 'cause I'm way better than you."

"But I could, if I practice lots."

"Yeah? And how are you gonna do that? You spend all your allowance on candy, and you need Derek or Laura to take you to the arcade," he reminded, looking smug.

"Derek will take me!" she told him angrily. "Right, Derek?"

"Yeah, sure, but you gotta save up your own money for it," he replied, letting the bike coast for a few feet before he started pedaling again.

"But what about candy?"

"That crap rots your teeth out anyway," he muttered.

"I'm a wolf though."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and if you wanna be the best wolf, you've gotta take care of yourself. It's not a free pass to everything. You've still gotta practice at that, too."

Cora let out a long sigh. "I don't like all this practicing."

His lips twitched. "Well, you wanna be the Corinator, right?"

She frowned thoughtfully, but nodded.

"Okay, then you gotta practice."

Turning her head, she stuck her tongue out at Dillon. "I'm gonna be better than you at everything, just you wait!"

Dillon rolled his eyes and pedaled harder, getting ahead of them on his bike. "We'll see!" he called back, grinning.

"Derek, go faster we can't let him win," Cora said, squeezing his forearm.

Both amused an exasperated, Derek pedaled harder, surpassing Dillon easily, though he chose not to get too far ahead just in case there were any cars coming. Still, when they arrived back at the house, Derek was in the lead, which meant Cora didn't stop boasting all through dinner, rubbing it in Dillon's face every chance she got.

* * *

The farther into her pregnancy she got, the less Talia liked to shift, which meant she spent a lot of time walking through the forest on foot rather than paw. Since Derek was a little boy, he remembered going for hikes with her while she was in her full wolf form, his hand tightly gripping her black fur as he walked next to her. Now, it was her hand he held as he helped her over fallen logs, looking worried with every step she took, heavily pregnant with what she told them was going to be a little girl.

"I'm not as fragile as you think I am," she told him, releasing his hand so she could press her palm to his cheek affectionately.

He leaned into it, but pursed his lips arguably. "You're fragile enough."

Her lips turned up at the corner. "You worry too much." She tucked a hand under her round stomach and continued walking, letting her fingers drag across the rough bark of a tree. "I've already had four children. You don't think I know what I'm doing by now?"

He shrugged, keeping step with her. "Just because you're careful doesn't mean everyone else is."

She looked over at him from the corner of her eyes. "And you're going to keep the world at bay, is that it?"

"I can try," he murmured.

Wrapping an arm around him, she tugged him against her side and kissed his head. "While I'm touched, you know it's not up to you keep us all safe, right?" She stared at him meaningfully. "You're just a boy, Derek. Bad things happen, things that can't be controlled, and it's no one's fault."

"I guess."

She smiled, hearing the disagreement in his voice, and shook her head. "You're stubborn, just like your dad."

He grinned then. "He says the same thing about you."

"Then you come by it honestly."

In the distance, he could hear the water rushing, and wasn't surprised when his mother turned in its direction. She loved the water and, despite the fact that it would probably be just short of freezing, he knew she'd probably take her shoes off and dip her toes into the frigid water. He helped her across the rocks and up a small hill, leading her down to where the rocks thinned out, replaced with damp grass and dirt. She kicked off her shoes and hiked her skirt up above her ankles as she stepped into the water, smiling to herself.

"Do you know why I wanted to go for a walk?" she asked him.

He shrugged. "'Cause dad's nesting… I think he rearranged the pantry three times already."

"Four," she laughed.

He smiled, shaking his head as he took his own shoes and socks off, rolling his jeans up his legs before he joined her. He winced as the water hit his skin and took a deep breath, feeling his skin cool rapidly. He stood next to her, trying not to squirm against the pins and needles that stabbed his skin.

She chuckled, side-eyeing him with amusement.

He glanced at her and then back out at the water. "What do you think you'll name her?" he wondered.

"Your dad likes the name Hope."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, but I'm partial to Nora."

He rolled his eyes. "You don't think Laura and Cora were enough?"

"Why break tradition?" she mused, smiling widely.

He hummed, staring down at the water, trying to see his feet through it as he wiggled his toes, trying to get the gritty sand out from between them.

"We don't do this enough," Talia said, drawing his attention back to her.

"What? Risk hypothermia?"

She snorted, shaking her head. "No, we don't get to spend as much time together… Between Laura's training and the baby, I feel like we've been spending more time apart."

"I get it."

She turned to him, letting her skirt drop, and reached for his hand. "I want us to do this more often. Just me and you, taking our walks like we used to."

"It's okay if you get busy," he reassured.

"I'm not taking no for an answer, Derek." She squeezed his hands. "Things might be a little difficult when the baby first comes, but we'll figure it out, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good." She released one of his hands and turned back, facing the water once more. Breathing in deep, she closed her eyes. "It's beautiful out here, isn't it?"

He half-smiled. "Yeah, it is."

She leaned against his side, resting her head on his shoulder. "You're getting so tall," she noticed.

He laughed under his breath. "Maybe you're shrinking."

She clucked her tongue, rolling her eyes. "I'm not _that _old."

"In _dog_ years…"

She slapped his chest, but he only laughed.

They spent a few more minutes lingering in the water before she decided she was ready to leave. He helped her get her shoes back on since she had trouble bending lately before he pulled his own sneakers back on and unrolled his jeans. She held his hand the whole walk back home and, while Derek would never admit he liked spending so much time with his mom, he really looked forward to doing it once a week.

* * *

_Today was the worst day of his life. _

While it would later become a common, repetitive thought, in that moment, Derek thought it would truly be the worst day he ever faced. As the years would pass, he'd later add it to a list of top five, but at thirteen years old, kneeling in the woods, crying over the body of his father, he couldn't imagine anything that would feel worse than that.

A rogue hunter had entered the Beacon Hills preserve at just before sunrise. He stalked through the trees, armed to the teeth, with only one mission in mind; destroy the Hale pack. There would be little warning that he was coming, as everybody was fast asleep in their beds. But just as the sun was beginning to peek out, a loud howl rent the air, cracked with warning.

After that, it was chaos.

Derek remembered falling out of his bed, half-shifted, confused and worried. And then Laura was throwing open his door, her shirt half dragged down her body. She grabbed his arm roughly and yanked him from the room. "Get Dillon and Cora and go downstairs to the basement," she ordered.

Rubbing his eyes, still half-asleep, he shook his head. "But that was Peter..."

"I know. He's warning us." She shoved him toward Dillon's room. "Go, Derek. Get the kids downstairs."

Instead of fighting for answers, he listened. Dillon was sitting up in bed, rubbing a hand over his face. Derek grabbed him up and took his hand, pulling him alongside him as he went into Cora's room. She was still sleeping, somehow not hearing the howl, or not bothering to respond to it. He scooped her up out of her blanket, with her favorite stuffed animal still clutched in her arm, and led them downstairs, rushing toward the door leading into the basement. As soon as he put them on the lumpy, oversized couch, he rushed back up the stairs, searching out Laura and his parents.

Royce was on the porch, dragging a thermal t-shirt over his head, his long, mussed hair falling into his face. Talia reached up to right it, stretching on her tip-toes.

"Don't do this," she begged. "Not alone."

"I'm not alone. Peter's out there."

She shook her head, her brow furrowed. "I love my brother, but he's young, Royce. He's not ready for whatever's out there. You heard it. You heard the fear when he called to us."

"That was fear _for _us," he assured. "Peter's a lot of things, but he'd never let anything happen to his family."

Talia swallowed tightly. "Please. You know who's out there. He's already killed so many."

"His last attack was on my brother. He's lucky he made it out alive. He won't this time." Turning to her, he took her by the hips and pulled her forward, her protruding belly pressing against his. He dropped his forehead to meet hers and sighed. "Go with the kids down to the basement. If I'm not back in a half hour, lead them through the tunnels, get out of Beacon Hills. Stay with my brother until you know it's safe."

"_Royce_," she choked out.

He kissed her, slanting his lips roughly over hers, his fingers tightly furled in her hair at the nape of her neck. "I know. I know you'd be out there with me. But it's not safe, not with Hope coming." His hand fell to her stomach, rubbing the curve. "He wouldn't stand a chance against you, Tal. Which is probably why he's coming now."

"Which means he's _smart_," she growled through clenched teeth, her eyes flashing a bright red.

"Wouldn't have lasted this long if he wasn't." With a sigh, he pressed another kiss to the tip of her nose. "I'll come back."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

He grinned at her, wrinkles fanning out from the corners of his eyes. "I'll love you 'til I die."

"Better," she breathed, blinking quickly against her tears.

Laura rushed past then, joining her parents on the porch. "I'm coming."

They both shook their heads. "Laura—"

"I'm in training for this. You can't keep me locked up." She looked up at her dad beseechingly. "_Please_. You'll need help."

He stared down at his daughter before looking back at Talia. "She's strong and fast, you said so yourself."

"She's also still a child!"

"I'm sixteen," she argued. "And I know what I'm doing."

"We're wasting time arguing about this. The more we fight, the closer he gets."

Just then, Peter broke through the tree line and rushed up the driveway, his golden eyes wide and his mouth gaping as he gasped for breath. "He's coming. We have to go."

"I'm coming," Laura told them decisively, before she hurried down the stairs and started across the lawn, shifting as she went, cracking her neck from side to side before she gave a loud, feral growl.

Sighing, Royce looked back to his wife and then past her and inside the house. He waved Derek over, his hand landing on his shoulder as soon as he reached them. "You'll take care of them." He stared down at his son seriously. "They're yours to protect, do you understand?"

He nodded, startled by how stern his father was being, a characteristic he rarely possessed. "I will. I promise."

Gripping him behind his neck, Royce pulled him forward and pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. "I'm proud of you. Don't ever forget that." With one last pat to his shoulder, Royce released him and turned to leave, joining Laura and Peter. He looked back once, nodding his head to Talia, and then he was gone, rushing into the woods to meet the problem head on.

"Will he come back?" Derek wondered, hating how his voice waivered.

Talia turned to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, and led him back to the basement door. "Come on. We have to be strong for Cora and Dillon, okay?" She cupped his face and stared down at him searchingly. "I know how scared you are, but I need you to be strong right now."

He swallowed tightly, nodding his head.

Derek made her walk ahead of him before he followed her down the stairs.

Dillon was holding a crying Cora, trying to calm her down while he silently cried himself. Derek took a seat beside them, wrapping his arm around them both and holding them to his side. All the while, their mother paced, watching the clock that hung on the wall. The basement was made completely of brick, the windows barred for safety, not only from the outside world but for it as well. On full moons, when the kids were still too young to completely control themselves, they were brought downstairs, where they could be kept from hurting others and themselves. Exercise equipment took up one side of the room, while the rest, aside from a couch and a few chairs, was just open space. The couch had seen better days, tears and chunks missing from it. Talia said it gave it the sofa personality, that it was made of up memories of their childhood, and often refused to get rid of it. Derek picked at a hole in the arm, tugging threads free, all the while silently counting the minutes away in his head.

He strained his ears to hear the fight, but it was difficult to tell one person from the other. He knew their heartbeats and comforted himself with the fact that he could still hear Laura, Peter's and his dad's beating, if erratically. The more he listened, however, the less comforted he was.

The last ten minutes, he would only remember in bits and pieces. He heard his father's howl break through the woods, but just as quickly as it hit him, so did Laura's, full of fury and pain. He remembered Peter coming back to them, torn up and bloody, still panting, something empty in his eyes.

"It's over," was all he said.

And then Derek was there, in the woods; he remembered the trees going by in a flash as he ran through them.

When he found his dad, Royce was lying feet from the shredded body of a man Derek had never seen before. Royce's head wasn't completely separated from his shoulders, but it was cut through enough to kill him. A sword lay on the ground, just out of reach of the hunter, as if it'd been ripped from his grip and thrown away before he was killed. Laura was sitting against a tree, her knees pulled up to her chest, her cheeks wet with both tears and blood spatter. Her eyes were wide, yellow, and staring emptily at the forest bed.

"Dad?" he asked, though he knew he wouldn't get a reply. He dropped his forehead down to Royce's chest and he cried, his body shaking with the force of it. And some part of him, some naïve, innocent part, waited hopefully for his father to wrap an arm around him and tell him it would be okay. But as he knelt there, his jeans soaking through with blood and wet earth, he felt the first crack ricochet through his soul.

And so began his journey as the Broken Boy.

[**Next**: Part III.]

* * *

**Author's Note**:

_Huge thanks to** Nienna Tinehtele, TessFan, and Booklover9477** for reviwing. I really appreciate it. _

_For those wondering when Chloe and Derek will meet, that'll the chapter just after the next one, so get excited. I have a number of chapters finished, but I'm pacing myself on posting them. Please try and review to let me know what you think. _

_Thank you for reading. _

-** Lee | Fina**


	4. A Hungry Wolf

**Title**: Blue & Gold  
**Series**: Unbalanced (1 of 3)  
**Category**: Teen Wolf/Smallville  
**Genre**: Romance/Drama  
**Ship**: Chloe Sullivan/Derek Hale  
**Chapter Rating**: PG-13/Teen  
**Overall** **Rating**: NC-17/Explicit  
**Word Count**: 5,983  
**Summary**: "The White Wolf. Bound to the Broken Boy. Destined to meet a Demon Wolf. The hells will rain pain like no other, but she will survive. She will fight. And when the day comes, she will bring order again."

**_Blue & Gold_**

**Chapter Three**

-_A Hungry Wolf_-

**III. **[2002]

Chloe was sixteen the first time she met Deucalion.

Earlier that day, she watched from afar, not the least bit repentant as she spied on her mother and her unexpected visitor. Moira stood tall and regal, her dark hair whipping around her as the wind picked up. Being that she was a well-known alpha, and a matriarch that many looked up to, it wasn't so surprising that someone had come looking for her advice, only that they came all the way from California for it.

Chloe had heard things about Deucalion, whispers on the wind, stories of him at both his height of grandeur and low of failure. It was one of those stories that originally started out as something to aspire to. He'd been a well-known alpha, one whom believed in balance and working together. He had taken steps to reach out, to befriend a hunter in hopes of stopping the war that raged between them before it took any more lives. Perhaps it was the mistake of a too-trusting man, or maybe the blame lay in the man who preferred chaos to peace. Bo told her the story after visiting another pack. He said the Argents had blinded Deucalion, leaving him with the stick he now used to find his way. But as much as it could have been seen as a triumph for hunters, she was also told that Deucalion's blindness did nothing to quell his power. If anything, it had served to encourage a spark of deeply ingrained rage that, if contained, could be far more volatile.

Deucalion was a tall man; though she thought some of his startling height might be more from bearing. His walking stick stood in front of him, planted firmly in the ground, his hands stacked one on top of the other above the grip. She peered at it thoughtfully, wondering how often he used it to confuse others, to trick them into thinking he was helpless. It was smart, and that worried her. Her mother was a clever woman and she never aligned herself with anyone she saw unfit. While Chloe couldn't prove that something was off about Deucalion, her Instinct was screaming at her a sharp, clear warning.

"You've got your father's suspicious streak," her mother would often tell her. And Chloe would preen with the words, taking them as the praise they truly were.

While Chloe trusted her parents and her pack, she wasn't as quick to trust anyone outside of it, and Deucalion was hitting every warning sign and bell she'd ever possessed. But she was a beta and if her mother wanted her opinion, she would ask for it. Turning her back on the scene, leaving Moira to do what she thought right, Chloe made her way down the hill toward her house. The sights and smells that cluttered her home were always welcome and quickly put her worried mind at ease.

Walking across her yard, she paused next to her youngest brother and the only one of her siblings who had been born human. Brody was only four and had little interest in anything that didn't live in the woods. He loved animals more than people and, unlike Samantha, could hold a whole conversation without ever uttering a word. Sam was a spitfire though, only two years older than Brody was and a thousand times more outgoing. She never stopped moving, running from one place to another, climbing trees, twisting and turning and flipping in the air until her body couldn't take one more second of movement. Often, she could be found napping in the branches of trees, having fallen asleep after exerting herself too much.

Chloe bypassed Brody, playing with the rabbit he'd recently saved and still recovering from a bum leg. She ruffled his hair as she went, and made her way up the steps of her house to the porch. On the cushioned swing laid Noah, his face buried in his arms, too-long hair a tangled mop on his head, shrouding what little of his face was peeking out. He was going through a growth spurt currently and had been sleeping more than usual, so it wasn't rare to find him napping, despite the fact that, at thirteen, he'd long grown out of nap time.

She was careful with the screen door, aware that the slightest of noises might set off his sensitive hearing. Making her way inside, she started searching out her dad, giving a cursory sniff before she climbed the stairs to his office. Dinner was cooking downstairs, and an apple pie was warm on the counter, golden brown and dappled with cinnamon. The scent was heavenly and her stomach gave a hungry tug. She paused at Bo's room, but it was empty so she kept going until she'd reached the closed door of Gabe's office.

"Come in," he called, before she'd even had a chance to knock.

She smiled, pushing the door open and slipping inside silently. "How do you always know?"

"Do you want the mysterious answer or the honest answer?"

She plopped down on the small loveseat and shrugged. "Surprise me."

"The mysterious answer would be that you're my daughter and I always know where you are… Call it dad's intuition…" He turned in his chair to face her, plucking his glasses off his nose and rubbing the bridge. "But the honest answer is that I knew as soon as Deucalion came looking for your mother that you would have questions… You won't ask her because you know she'll only tell you you're not old enough yet to understand pack politics." He half-smiled to himself. "Your thirst for answers is insatiable though, and you hate feeling like you're in the dark."

"Should I lay down on the couch for this analysis?" she joked, raising an eyebrow.

"You're your father's daughter… But on this, I'm afraid I can't be much help."

"Can't… or won't?" Leaning forward, she rested her elbows on her knees, peering at him curiously.

"Do you remember when you were 12 and I told you that it was rude to monitor my heartbeat?"

She nodded. "You said it's an invasion of privacy; that people don't have to answer to me just because I can hear if their heart speeds up or skips a beat."

"It's a matter of trust… If you're listening to their heart, you trust your abilities. If you listen to their words, you trust them."

"What if they're not trustworthy?"

"Sometimes you have to take that gamble."

She scoffed, leaning back in her seat. "I highly doubt werewolf hunters aren't using everything in their repertoire to get us, so why not let us even the playground a little?"

"If you think werewolf hunters are on an even keel with you, you haven't been practicing enough," he reminded, his face lightening with humor.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Mom puts me on the ground every time… There's only so many bruises one ego can take."

"You should ask Bo to spar if you want to sharpen your skills."

Her lips pursed in a frown.

He tipped his head, peering at her. "One day your mother will pass on her legacy and Bo will step into that position of leadership," he reminded. "You don't have to kneel at his feet, Chloe. But you have to know that, one day, he'll be your alpha, and he'll deserve your respect."

"He'll get my respect when he earns it," she muttered, scowling as she thought of her older brother.

Gabe sighed. "And what does he have to do in order to earn it?"

"Stop being an ass would be a nice start."

Mouth twitching with amusement, he hid it behind a hand as he leaned back in his chair, raising his glasses back to his face. "Why don't you go see how that's coming then? And tell him to set the table while you're at it."

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed, standing from the couch and making her way to the door. She paused on the threshold though. "Dad…?"

He hummed in acknowledgement.

"Do you trust Deucalion?"

He looked back at her, his brow knit. "What does your gut tell you about him?"

"Nothing good."

With a sigh, he admitted, "So does mine."

A shiver of worry ran down her spine and she immediately stood a little straighter, the urge to seek out her mother strong. "Should mom—?"

Before she could continue, he interrupted her, a touch of disapproval in his voice. "Your mother is strong, very capable… She knows what she's doing."

She bowed her head briefly, taking his words to heart. It wasn't her place to question her mother's actions or motives; Moira had only ever done right by the pack. But there were times when something inside her, a tiny voice tickling at the back of her throat, became desperate to cry out and speak her mind. She quieted it, as a beta wolf should, but the voice rarely faded. That was why she'd taken to writing, because there, nobody could censor her. There was nobody who would tell her to be quiet, to accept the rule of thumb, to follow tradition because it was tradition. She could write to her heart's content and never would anybody tell her that her words were wrong, her opinions void. It wasn't that her mother tried to put her down, it was that she was the alpha, she was the final say, and sometimes, Chloe didn't like that.

But the idea that someday her mother wouldn't be, and Bo would stand in her place, was something she could barely stomach. She loved her brother, truly she did, deep into her bones. But he didn't have the control her mother had, he didn't have the peace inside him that Moira had long ago perfected. Bo lived on the stories of blood and gore and war. He bathed in it like it was his morning meal and his nightly dessert. He wanted to reign supreme and he relished the day he would have the power to do so.

The shiver that shook her then was of a different variety, one for the future she dreaded to think of.

Turning on her heel, she left her father's office, her mind elsewhere as she made her way downstairs. She didn't bother telling Bo to set the table, he'd only balk and complain. She did it herself and she checked dinner while she was at it, keeping her body busy while her mind was awhirl with scenarios. Was Deucalion really the man of legend she'd learned about? What did he want? Why would he travel so far to talk to her mother in person?

But those questions wouldn't get answered, not that night.

Her fingers twitched, wanting to call Lois and get her thoughts on it, but the only communication she currently had with her cousin was through mail and it took longer to get to her due to a privacy policy the base had put into effect. It was likely that, by the time Lois got her letter, the issue would already have been dealt with. Not for the first time, she really wished her uncle hadn't moved them halfway across the country, or that he'd moved home by now. She hadn't seen Lois since last Thanksgiving; she'd invited her down for Christmas, but Uncle Sam had taken her and Lucy away on a vacation and, while Chloe missed her, she also knew that Lois treasured any real time she got to spend with her dad that didn't involve telling her to stop flirting with his soldiers.

When Moira returned to the house, there was no Deucalion in tow. She stopped in the kitchen to check on dinner before asking Chloe to round up her dad and the other kids. It wasn't long before they were all around the table, their heads bowed as Gabe recited an old prayer that wished peace upon everyone at the table. Bo was the first to reach for food, a sign that everyone else could too. As the plates started to fill up, the conversation overflowed. While Noah wasn't much of a talker, Sam was happy to tell everyone about her day, every single moment, from the second she opened her eyes to the moment she sat down for dinner. And as soon as she stopped to take a breath, Brody was happy to fill the silence with his stories of various animals he'd met and helped that day.

Chloe's attention went back and forth between her mother, poised and calm as she ate, to her brother, stuffing his mouth full of food, talking as he chewed, not the least bit curious about the visitor they'd received. Bo was tall, towering over six feet, with dark blue eyes and blonde hair the same shade as hers. He was lean but muscled, with wide shoulders and thick biceps that he often let the younger kids hang off of like a badge of honor. He looked like an alpha wolf; all power, all overwhelming masculine strength. It was the stuff on the inside that he lacked; the intricate details that her mother exuded with every breath, bypassing her eldest son entirely. Chloe regretted that. She regretted how a part of her thought it unfair that he should be born first, bred and raised to become the next in line, when he could never understand the honor of it.

Sibling rivalry, her parents had told her when she was young. But she knew it was something else, something deeply ingrained within her that was aware, completely and entirely, that Bo was not meant to be alpha. Because the truth of it was, Chloe didn't want to be alpha instead, she just didn't think he should, or could, be, not the way their pack deserved.

"You're quiet tonight," Moira said, drawing her attention.

Chloe attempted a smile. "I'm tired," she explained.

And she wasn't lying; her mind had been on overdrive for most of the day, from the matter of Deucalion's surprise visit to the reminder that one day Bo would stand where their mother stood. It was mental exhaustion, definitely. But she also felt something, deep in her chest, clawing at her for attention. Something was coming, and she wasn't going to like it.

Moira rubbed her hand over Chloe's arm reassuringly. "We'll talk later," she promised her daughter, smiling at her gently.

"I'd like that."

Dinner continued as Sam demanded attention, remembering a particular tree that she climbed and felt was in desperate need of talking about.

Chloe put her previous thoughts behind her and instead focused on family, smiling as Sam offered to show them the "seriously cool" flip she'd done earlier, this time using the counter. Her mother shook her head in exasperation before directing her daughter back to the table to finish eating, but Chloe knew as soon as she was finished her food, Sam would be flipping herself off of everything she could, and Moira would merely smile at her daughter's antics.

Hours later, Chloe found herself in her bedroom, finishing up the last of her homework. She wanted the weekend free because her dad promised to take her into the next city over for a supply run. While Chloe would always be at home in the woods, there was still a part of her that enjoyed city life. Growing up, the responsibility of the pack had been hammered into her, but it'd never dulled the hope inside her that one day she could still be a journalist. She wanted to travel the world looking for stories and write them herself. She wanted to be what her dad was to her; the wordsmith who made whole worlds exist in the minds of all who listened, or, in her case, read.

But in order to do that, she would have to leave the pack, at least temporarily. Packs thrived on numbers and putting too much distance between a beta and their alpha wasn't ideal. They relied on each other not only for survival, but for guidance, support, love, and companionship. It might not have been a problem if where she wanted to go to school and eventually work was nearby, but Metropolis wasn't exactly the next town over. And, simply put, there was no way, no matter how much they loved her, that the Sullivan pack would move to Metropolis for her to pursue journalism. She understood that, too. The longer she stayed, the more effort she put into her pack, the longer her mother would be alpha, taking in the power that her kids gave her to defy the logistics of time and stand as leader of her family. It wasn't out of malicious means and, truthfully, if her mother was ever tired, ever ready to release her alpha status, Chloe would accept it and let her rest, but she didn't think Bo was ready. He needed more time to grow up, to learn the world, to understand what it meant to take care of the pack and not solely himself. He was still selfish and he needed to be selfless.

It was those thoughts that her mother interrupted late that night.

Chloe felt the prickle of awareness on the back of her neck and breathed in subtly, immediately calmed by the scent of her mother; a rich, earthy note that made her heart warm. The scent filled the room as she entered, taking a seat on the edge of Choe's bed.

Moira moved like water; each movement was measured, it was slow but aware. It was strong and could pick up speed if necessary, it could attack at any moment, but often it was still on the surface and rushing underneath. Chloe waited for her to speak, as she often did. Her mother always took her time with her words, thinking them through, over and over, before she voiced what she was thinking. Her whole life, Chloe couldn't remember one time that Moira had lashed out and said something in anger. Not to her children, at least. But there was a reason she was an alpha, there was a reason power fit her, and that was because she knew how to manipulate it to her benefit. When it came to talking to other packs, she was cool headed, but she was also defensive and protective. Her children, her pack, would always come first. She might want to help others, to pass on her wisdom and help guide them in their choices as fellow alpha leaders, but if they threatened her or her family, there was nothing like the wrath of Moira Sullivan in a rage.

As much as Chloe could say that she had seen her mother as a pivotal lighthouse in the storm, she could also say that she had seen her wear the blood of her enemies. "You can't speak of war until you've tasted death," she used to tell Bo, who was always hungry for a fight. There was something about seeing her mother, her mouth ringed in blood, her hands dripping with it, that was both a comfort and a nightmare of Chloe's. But there was truth in it; two sides to every person, no matter how they might seem. Deception; the most cunning of allies and adversaries alike.

"You saw me with Deucalion earlier," Moira began.

"You caught my scent."

"You weren't trying to hide it."

Chloe shrugged. "I didn't think I had to."

Moira stared at her a moment. "Deucalion is not someone you play with, Chloe… He's not someone you trust, nor is he someone you blatantly accuse of being untrustworthy."

"Then what _do _you do?"

She tipped her head, her blue eyes swirling before they became that bright red that soothed her eldest daughter. "You take precautions."

"If you don't trust him, why let him come here? Why even talk to him?"

Her lips curled up at the corners, a sign that she thought Chloe was being naïve, which never failed to irk her. "Do you invite the hungry wolf to dinner or do you leave him outside to starve?"

Chloe blinked at the change of subject. "I… I don't… It depends, doesn't it?"

"You feed him," Moira said simply. "If you leave him outside, he only grows hungrier, and more restless. And now, when he strikes, he does it out of vengeance. He does it with the idea in mind that you deserve it, because you didn't offer him kindness…"

"Just because you feed him doesn't mean he won't bite you," she argued.

"_That…_ depends on what you feed him."

With that, Moira rose from the bed, bent to kiss Chloe's hair, and then swept out of the room, leaving her to ponder her all too elusive words.

However, an hour later, those words were still lingering with her, still gnawing at her brain, and she decided that it was the confines of her room and the house that was keeping her from getting any kind of understanding. So she put her books away and left her desk, tugging on a pair of runners before she made her way downstairs. She always felt better, clearer, after a run; the scents and sounds of the forest were calming and helped to alleviate the fog that would otherwise clutter her thinking.

She found Bo on the porch, his feet up on the railing as he stared up at the moon, letting it bathe his face in pale light.

"Don't go too far from the house," he ordered.

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks, but I think I can handle the woodland creatures."

He snorted, never opening his eyes, his thick arms crossed over his chest. "Maybe it's the woodland creatures I'm worried about."

She walked down the stairs, not bothering to reply.

"You've got one hour before I come looking for you!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Chloe took off for the forest at a sprint. Her house was tucked comfortably away from most visitors. Though there was a path to drive when necessary, it was hidden to most, and made it difficult for anybody who didn't know the family to find their way. Hectares of forest surrounded the property, nothing but trees, fresh, rushing water, and animals free of restriction. She ran through the trees in what appeared to her to be almost slow-motion, she could see every obstacle before she met it, leaping and flipping, using her surroundings to help her keep her balance and to avoid collision. It was freeing. The most incredible feeling she'd ever known was to harness the world around her and use it to her advantage. She felt the air spin around her, the ground bend to her will, her body arc and split and twist as if every atom, every limb, every inch of her was one with nature.

It was exquisite.

She ran until she reached the edge, the sounds of the highway finally reaching her ears. This was where the rest of the world started to eke into their private paradise. She drew back from it, chin bent slightly, like a dog who knew that a car would flatten it like a pancake. She turned back, walking the way she'd come, enjoying the sweet scent of pine on the air and the squish of muddy earth under her feet. She let her hands drag over the bark of trees and catch on the gnarled branches reaching for her. She flashed her eyes at passing animals, a golden hue, offering nothing but understanding as they moved about in their lives. They were not her prey, they were her allies. She got no thrill out of hunting, letting others be as they wanted to be. If forced to attack, she would, and could, but she didn't seek it out like Bo.

In school, Bo could have been just narrowly categorized as a bully. He knew he was stronger, faster, and he used that to put others in their place. On sports teams, in the hallways, wherever he could assert his dominance, and it bothered her. Some days she wanted to take him by the scruff of his neck and shake him, make him see that he wasn't given this gift so that he could lord it over others. He was privileged to be born into the family he was. Instead, she waited for the day when he would graduate, and finally, he had. Now she had two years free of his harassing figure in the hallways. Two years in which she wouldn't have to tether the wolf inside her that wanted to challenge him every time he pushed or shoved or scared one of their peers.

It scared her, sometimes. Not him, not really. But the need inside her to make him stop. The part of her that was almost feral with the desperation to pull him back and rein him in. It was her mother's duty, however, and her father's blind spot. At his heart, she truly believed Bo was a good man, he was just misguided, drunk on power, unaware of how his actions affected others. And she hoped that one day he would realize the error of his ways. She hoped because she thought, if he didn't, that one day she might have to make him.

It was no secret that female wolves could take more pain than men. It was no surprise, either, that her mother was far more powerful than Bo would ever be. And Chloe, though she rarely gave it thought, took after her mother in many regards, not the least of which in this way. While she was young and still inexperienced in many ways, she was a leader, she was controlled, and she recognized the importance of putting the pack before herself.

Chloe was half-way home when she heard it. It wasn't his footsteps that caught her attention, it was the walking stick. It moved through the air differently, slashed and cut through it, not like a limb, not like a body, but like a foreign attachment that didn't belong in the depths of the forest. Her head swiveled, senses on alert, but it was pointless.

Deucalion was upon her before she could even think of reacting.

"You're more like your mother than I expected..." his smooth accent reached her.

Her first reaction was to bare her teeth and crouch, but she pulled on the tensed strings of her control and kept her teeth from elongating. Instead, she watched Deucalion, her eyes the only part of her that moved, tracking him like the predator she knew him to be. "Did you have a lot of expectations when you decided to stalk me?"

His lips curled up at the corners, though she doubted he was amused with her snark so much as her gall. "Did Moira tell you I knew her when she was your age?"

Chloe raised a brow but kept quiet, because no, she hadn't, but her mother was selective about what information she let slip and what she held close to her chest. Then again, that probably had a lot to do with Chloe's fondness for listening in on others' conversations.

"She was very beautiful… Still is, of course. But back then, she was… magnificent. A force to be reckoned with. The kind of wolf that others flocked to, desperate to catch her eye…"

He painted an exaggerated picture, Chloe was sure, but a part of her could still imagine it. She'd seen pictures of Moira and she was truly stunning. Chloe had once been jealous of her, wishing she'd taken more after her than her father. With her fair skin and bright blue eyes in direct contract to her inky black hair, it was no wonder that others would want her. And wolves were a territorial bunch; they fought for the right to be with who they wanted, the victor often getting who they wanted in the end. But Moira was not like other wolves; she didn't want to be fought for. She'd already chosen.

"Now that she's mated, they come to her for wisdom, for guidance…"

"Is that why you came? For guidance?"

He turned to look at her, though she knew that his blindness made it impossible for him to truly see her. She'd heard rumors that he had some of his vision, but she couldn't be sure how true they were. She had friends in distant packs, but anything she learned from them was as thin as ghost stories, nothing to hold them up.

"Something like that," he mused, a smile turning up his mouth.

She imagined if he didn't give off such a dark, unforgiving air, he might be handsome, and she wondered if he was always this way. Or if maybe, perhaps when he'd known her mother as a teenager, there had been another side to him. A side that didn't make her gut twist with warning.

"Tell me, Chloe, do you ever wonder what it will be like when the pack is yours?"

Her brow furrowed. "The pack will be Bo's, and only when my mom thinks he's ready."

He hummed, turning his head to one side, cocking it as if he was listening for something. But Chloe's ears were sharp, aware, and she couldn't make out anything nearby, not anything of use, anyway. A few deer, rabbits, a stray fox or two. But no people, no family, nobody to help her if this went sideways.

"And when will that be, do you know?"

She pressed her lips in a thin line. "It's not my business. Mom will know when he's ready."

"But you don't think he ever will be, do you?"

"It's not my business," she repeated.

"You think he's too out of control, too power-hungry, too eager to be alpha…"

_Yes, yes, yes_.

"It's not my—"

"But you must have an _opinion_…" he interrupted, his voice silky, slick with manipulation, with knowing. "You must see Bo as he trains with your mother, as he ignores her teachings. You must wonder about the future, about what will become of your siblings… Will he take care of them? Treat them right? Will your mother regret letting him become alpha, and will she be strong enough to take it back from him…? By force."

Her heart clenched in her chest and she glared at him. "She would never hurt Bo. She'd never hurt any of us. And if you think she would, you don't know her," she ground out, her teeth grit so tightly she could feel them straining.

He stared a moment longer. "No, she wouldn't…" he agreed. "And neither would you."

Her brow furrowed. "Of course I wouldn't."

"Not even for the power she possessed?" he queried. "To be stronger than all others, to stop people like Bo from crushing the weak-willed under his heavy finger?"

She took a step toward him, angry not only that he spoke of her brother in ways only she was allowed to think, only blood could question, but because he suggested something so vile, so disgusting to her, that for a moment she almost forgot about the consequences of attacking a seasoned alpha. "I would sooner pull my own beating heart out than hurt one hair on any of their heads."

He stepped forward, meeting her squarely, and tipped his head down. Even through his glasses, despite his lack of vision, Chloe swore he stared right into her soul in that moment. "Then you are a braver wolf than many…" He turned on his heel then and calmly walked away, somehow knowing exactly where to step and when to move. "Bravery is rarely smart though."

"And it usually gets you killed," she whispered, remembering her father's words as clearly as the day he told them to her, years ago, when she'd tried to save a stray dog from being run over in the street.

She wasn't sure if it was coincidence or not, but those words chilled her now rather than how they'd once only made her roll her eyes. Deucalion did not say them with the same affectionate chastising that her dad did. Instead, he said them with a mocking finality that she knew said more than she wanted to hear.

She hurried back to her house, panic tugging at her heart, and was only comforted when she found it just as she left it. Most of the lights were off, except the porch light and her bedroom on the second floor. Bo was waiting for her, half-asleep and all the more innocent looking for it. She climbed the steps swiftly and moved toward him, her head cocked to one side as she looked him over. With his face relaxed, the malice she sometimes saw in the halls of her school was nowhere to be seen. He took after their dad in looks, mostly. His face was angular where Chloe's was softer, rounder, like their mother's. Bo was handsome and, when he wanted to be, charming. She couldn't count on both hands how many girlfriends he'd had and she didn't care to. At home, he could be warm. Although he didn't show it the same, she knew he loved his brothers and sisters more than anyone, and he listened to his parents, even if he didn't always agree with them. But like her mother was both a gentle mother and a vicious warrior, Bo was a loving brother and a cruel enemy. She had trouble differentiating between the two some days, but tonight she didn't struggle in the least.

What Deucalion had said bothered her, but not enough to make her question her alliances. Yes, she had trouble believing Bo was ready to be an alpha, but she also trusted that her mother would not give him that power until he was ready to take it on. And he wasn't, not by a long shot. Her mother was still strong, still able, and she would stand as matriarch and alpha for as long as she could.

With that thought, Chloe reached over and socked Bo in the shoulder. "C'mon, meathead. You can't sleep out here. You know dad hates that."

He let out a long, dismissive hum. "I like it out here… Closer to the moon."

"And farther from the pack." She moved to the door. "You can't play sentinel all night. It's nearly one, and you have to drive Sam and Brody in to town tomorrow."

He grumbled, but stood from the bench, stretching his arms out above his head and twisting it around until his neck gave a crack. He followed her inside, his gait lazy, and kicked his shoes off by the door, locking it behind him.

Chloe climbed the stairs quickly, her footsteps silent, and heard him lumbering up behind her, making no effort to be quiet. This was one of the many times she was reminded that Bo was just her overlarge brother, where power trips faded away and she was left with the boy who taught her how to swim and ride a bike and who held her hand through every transformation when she was a little girl. He tucked her into bed at night and read her stories and sat with her on the bus to and from school, despite being older and cooler than her as the years went on. So when he ruffled her hair as he walked past her to his room, she only smiled to herself, choosing not to shove him or scowl or slap his hand away.

The pack came first, yes. Family, blood, it was a priority.

She didn't care what Deucalion was hinting at, what hidden message he left for her to pick apart until her brain couldn't take any more subterfuge. This was her home and her pack and she would guard it with her life.

She had no idea how true that was.

[**Continue**: Part IV.]

* * *

**Author's Note**: _Thank you to **Booklover9477, Guest**, and** Nellie** for reviewing. The next chapter will be when Derek and Chloe finally meet! :) Especially because it's such a small fanbase for this particular crossover, please be sure to leave a review so I know all of this time and energy isn't going to waste._

_Thank you for reading!_

- **Lee | Fina**


	5. A Tail of Two Packs

**Title**: Blue & Gold  
**Series**: Unbalanced (1 of 3)  
**Category**: Teen Wolf/Smallville  
**Genre**: Romance/Drama  
**Ship**: Chloe Sullivan/Derek Hale  
**Chapter Rating**: PG-13/Teen  
**Overall** **Rating**: NC-17/Explicit  
**Word Count**: 5,346  
**Summary**:"The white wolf. Bound to the broken boy. Destined to meet a demon wolf. The hells will rain pain like no other, but she will survive. She will fight. And when the day comes, she will bring order again."

**_Blue & Gold_**

**Chapter Fou****r**

-_A Tail of Two Packs_-

**IV**. [2003]

The Sullivan family set out for Beacon Hills late on Wednesday. The Wolf Moon was that coming Saturday and Chloe's mother had made the surprising decision to spend it with her best friend Talia Hale, a woman Chloe had only ever knew about through stories growing up. Having heard only good things, Chloe was eager to meet the woman who Moira often looked to for guidance and support in pack decisions, something she usually only shared with her husband.

It took two days traveling and the usually active family was restless. Chloe was desperate to stretch her legs and she knew the rest of her siblings were just as eager. Bo had slept through most of the driving, and was currently taking up a large portion of the backseat, which meant Sam and Brody were squished together beside him. Noah, thankfully, kept to his quiet corner, buried in his comic books. Though he had passed out on her shoulder on the morning when they first left, she couldn't blame him since it was well before dawn, and he had tried to give her space ever since.

When the car pulled up to the Hale house, she was surprised by how at ease she felt. It was obvious the Hales were wealthy, much like her own family. The three story house that stood in front of her was beautiful, with a stone base under its predominantly wood structure. A long porch lined the front, dressed in cushioned chairs and benches, wind chimes dangling near a support beam. Turning her attention away from the house, she looked out on the surrounding property. Like her own home, there was a large front yard, dotted with various toys, a couple picnic tables, and a covered barbecue. The trees outlining the yard were darker, the ground a little more damp. All around them was a forest preserve and it was beautiful.

Chloe helped the younger kids pile out of the car. Her mother was already moving across the lawn to embrace her long-time friend, cradling Talia in her arms like a beloved sister she hadn't seen in ages. Chloe was briefly reminded of Lois and wondered how she was doing and if she'd received her latest letter. The last time they'd talked, her cousin was getting into trouble, which wasn't all that surprising, really. It was Lois' default setting. She decided to call her later and see how she was faring in Smallville. She'd recently gone back to high school and was in a love/hate _thing _with some farm boy named Clark Kent. Whoever he was, Chloe knew he'd have his hands full.

Turning her attention back to the reunion in front of her, she watched as Talia and Moira drew back, their foreheads still pressed together a long moment, before finally Moira raised an arm toward her kids, beckoning them forward. They lined up with Bo at the forefront and followed downwards age-wise.

Behind Talia, her children came out of the house, lining up in a similar fashion.

"Head count?" she asked, peering back at her eldest boy.

"We're missing Hope."

"Wait! Wait, I'm coming," came a voice, hurried steps bringing a young girl to the end of the group, the others looking amused by her entrance.

"Guests first," Talia said.

Moira grinned. "You know Gabe," she said, reaching for her husband's hand. Starting at her youngest, Moira listed them all off, pointing as she went. "Brody, Samantha, Noah, Chloe, and Bo."

Talia looked at each of them as their name was called, taking a moment to memorize their features. When roll call finished, she looked back at Bo, a faint smile tugging at her lips as she tipped her head to accommodate his height, and then her gaze fell back to Chloe momentarily.

Finally, Talia turned to her own children and, following the pattern of youngest to oldest, stepped behind the smallest of the group. The little girl who'd shown up late, who couldn't be more than four, raised her chin. "Hope," Talia stated, her hand on her youngest's shoulder before she moved to the girl next to her. About Sam's age, Cora had pin-straight brown hair falling in her eyes. Two boys followed; the shorter one, Dillon, looked eager to leave. Talia had to reach a little higher for her eldest son, who stood taller than her. "Derek." Finally, she moved to the side of her daughter, her arm moving around her waist and squeezing affectionately. "And Laura." She cast her eyes around before looking back at Moira. "And I'm sure my brother Peter is around here somewhere."

"He always liked to make an entrance," Moira mused.

Talia grinned slowly. "Unfortunately."

It became clear the two women wanted to catch up, so Chloe wasn't surprised when they told the children to get to know each other before walking off toward the house. Her dad was already making his way back to the SUV, intent on dropping everything off at the hotel. While Talia had invited them to stay with her, there had been some worry that too many werewolves and so little space would mean a clash of personalities they couldn't afford at the moment. With the Wolf Moon, it meant packs were coming in from all around California, and it was better to show a united front than focus on any petty arguments children might get into. That said, they still expected the Sullivans and Hales to bond, and so it was left to them as they stood staring awkwardly at each other in the yard.

"This is fun," Bo muttered under his breath.

"And you're making it so much better," Chloe answered, raising a brow up at him.

He shrugged, tucking his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Well, dad left with the Monopoly board, so I'm out of ideas..."

Sighing, she glared up at him, before finally turning back to the others, eyeing Derek and Laura for a moment. "I imagine we'll be spending most of the weekend around here. Mind showing us around?"

The two eldest Hales exchanged a look before finally looking back and nodding.

"It must've been a long drive," Laura noted. "You probably want to stretch your legs."

Chloe offered a grin. "You have no idea."

Derek's eyes flashed blue for a moment, catching her attention, but he looked away quickly, frowning to himself.

Her lips curled down at the corners thoughtfully. She glanced at Bo, but he was already distracted, approaching the edge of the woods, not bothering to wait for the others. Chloe turned back to make sure her brothers and sister were ready to go, not surprised to find Sam was giving Brody a piggyback while they talked. Or, more accurately, Sam talked and Brody listened. Noah was lingering nearby, not quite ready to reach out and make friends with Dillon, who she was pretty sure was closest to him in age. She wasn't surprised; Noah didn't make friends easily, being as quiet and shy as he was. She hoped, however, that might change a little during their stay.

While Laura went inside to let their mother's know where they were going, Cora moved around to stand next to Derek, leaning against his side and nuzzling into his hand as it rested atop her head.

Hearing the crunch of twigs underfoot, Chloe turned back to see Bo already traipsing through the woods. "Your impatience is showing," she shouted after him. "It's not a race!"

"If it was, I'd win," he called back.

Chloe snorted. "Not likely."

She turned back when she heard Laura approaching them once more and found Derek staring at her curiously, his brow furrowed. Her attention moved to his sister, however, as Laura said they could start moving. As a group, they made their way toward the forest and Chloe could barely suppress the part of her that was desperate to let loose and start running. She could already feel the energy pumping throughout her body, aching for release. But they had the younger kids with them and, as much as she knew they were agile, not all of them knew the woods well enough to be released to run wherever the pleased. If they'd been at home, Chloe wouldn't have been as worried, but there were a lot of packs in the area, not all of them friendly.

"Is it any different here?" Laura wondered, apparently noticing how she kept taking deep breaths.

"It's warmer here, so it smells differently," she explained, her eyes flashing gold as she took a look around. "And the trees are darker." She rested a hand against the bark of one. "But it still smells right."

"Like freedom."

"Exactly." She breathed in deep, letting it all fill her senses, the scents imbedded in her nose, the air filling her lungs. She could almost taste it and it made her skin prickle with awareness.

"Chlo…"

She felt a bump at her shoulder and turned to see Noah beside her.

"I want to run," he told her, his feet shifting.

She reached out to squeeze his shoulder gently. "Together?"

He nodded.

She turned her head to look at Samantha, who'd already moved to walk with Cora, bringing Brody along with her. "I'll watch them," Derek assured.

Chloe looked up at him, considered it for a moment, and then nodded. "Just a quick run," she said, both a promise to him and a restriction for Noah.

Derek's chin lowered in acknowledgement and she turned back toward her younger brother.

"Ready?"

He grinned up at her, his teeth elongating and fur growing across his formerly pale, smooth cheeks. His face transformed into, what she considered to be, a ferociously adorable wolf. He was still in the middle of puberty and it showed. While she let her teeth out, she didn't transform completely, and winked at him before she took off. Noah was much faster than her and didn't bother holding back as he leapt over logs and flipped in the air with the ease of someone who'd done it all their lives. He had to slow down a little, his legs much longer than hers, but he still managed to exert himself, getting all of that restless energy out.

When they circled back to the group, she was panting, exhilarated, and eager for more. Noah was content though, and moved to stand near Sam and Brody, taking up the space behind them, contently quiet. Chloe briefly considered who she should walk with; Laura was at the front while Derek was taking up the rear, the children between them for safety reasons. Bo was still on his own, exploring and no doubt planning to leap out and attempt to startle everyone. Finally, she decided it made more sense to walk with Derek, if only because Laura was on Bo's level, training to be alpha, while Derek was a beta like her.

He glanced at her as they fell into step and she considered asking him about the blue eyes, fully aware of what they meant. But she also knew that it was be an invasion of privacy, and her father's voice in her head was quick to warn her away from that path, especially since they'd only just met. Whatever Derek did, it was his story to tell and not hers to pry from him. Or that's what she told herself to keep the itch of curiosity from making her blurt out the questions she wanted answers to.

"My mom's been talking about coming down here for years," she told him in way of a conversation starter. "I know she missed Talia, but there wasn't ever really a good time to visit."

He nodded. "Mom's been excited for months since she found out."

"I'm surprised we're all only meeting now."

He glanced ahead at his sister before looking back at her. "I've heard some things about alliances breaking down. Packs being killed off… I think they're using the Wolf Moon to try and find out what's going on, see if anybody knows anything."

She frowned. "In California, or in general?"

"Mostly in California, but I've heard a few from other states are having problems."

"When did it start?"

He shrugged. "This last year, I guess." He nodded his head forward. "She talks about it more with Laura than me."

Chloe nodded. Bo tended to learn things she wasn't privy to as well, but Chloe had her ways of finding things out, pack ranking be damned. "Did she tell you about the packs?"

He shook his head. "My uncle Peter."

She quirked a brow. "The one who likes to make a big entrance?"

His lips twitched with humor as he nodded. It faded a moment later as he cast his eyes to the right, his shoulders tightening.

She turned to him curiously, feeling a prickle of unease run through her at his sudden change of body language. "What?"

"Your brother is coming back around."

Chloe turned her head and searched the treeline but couldn't see Bo anywhere. She listened hard, but couldn't hear his footsteps approaching, which usually gave him away. "How do you know?"

"Because Laura looks relaxed."

She frowned. "Shouldn't she look more alert?" She tucked her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "Not that Bo is a threat, but he does like to show up others."

"It's a game Laura does, makes them think she's at ease, that she doesn't know they're coming…"

Chloe smiled slowly, nodding. "Smart… She'll make a good alpha one day."

"She will," he agreed, not the least bit bitter.

She hummed, looking his profile over thoughtfully. Derek was taller than his sister and she could see he was already starting to grow into the strength of his wolf, his shoulders wide, his arms leanly muscled. She imagined in a few more years, he'd be almost as large as Bo, and yet he didn't seem much like her brother. At least not so far. He was calm, comfortable around the younger kids, and appreciated his sister's strengths. Chloe, for all that she knew her brother loved her, was aware that he could be jealous sometimes. She was smart and she'd taken to tracking quicker than he had. In many regards, she was a stronger leader and more equipped for the role he was born to. She never said it, no one did, but Bo knew. And she thought, if their positions were reversed, if she were to be next in line for alpha, he would've been angry about it. It wasn't that he thought women were weaker than men, just weaker than him. And maybe, under normal circumstances, that was true, but there was more to strength than just the physical, and that's where Bo fell flat.

"What about Bo?" Derek voiced, seeming to catch on to her reticence.

She struggled with what to say at first. She didn't like lying, she also didn't think she should have to, but Derek wasn't pack, and she had only just met him. If he related it back to his sister or mother, it would look bad, like there was dissent within the pack. The last thing she wanted was to make her mother look bad, and that's exactly what would happen if she let it be known that she didn't trust Bo to lead them properly.

She turned to look at Derek, her lips parted, but no words escaping.

He stared back at her, reading her face more than anything. He bowed his head in short understanding and then, before they could discuss it further, there was a noise ahead. They turned swiftly, watching as Bo broke from the woods and lunged. The kids startled, having been in conversation and unaware of their surroundings. Instead of catching Laura off-guard, however, he quickly found himself on the ground, eating dirt. Laura had been expecting him and she'd rolled to the right, catching him mid-lunge before she threw him to the ground. It was embarrassing. Bo was older than Laura and should have been able to overcome her, but he was sloppy and he always assumed his adversary wasn't as capable as him.

The children giggled when he raised his head and gave it a shake, dust and leaves falling from his hair. He pushed himself up and looked over at a smugly smirking Laura.

"Not bad," he told her.

She snorted. "If you get any more obvious, I might actually have to collar you."

He laughed, taking it better than Chloe expected. Maybe it was just when his sister made him look bad that he took it to heart.

Chloe's eyes narrowed, not sure how to feel about that insight.

"There's a creek nearby," Derek said, turning to look at her. "We can walk down there before we circle back to the house."

She nodded agreeably, before calling forward, "Bo, we're going to the creek."

Her brother ignored her, focused instead of Laura, and Chloe rolled her eyes. Now she got it. He wasn't showing off for the sake of male pride, but because he wanted Laura to notice him. Deciding that was a disaster she didn't want to witness, she started shuffling the kids forward, moving them past Laura and Bo, who were apparently flirting now.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Derek said when they were out of sight of the two alphas-in-training.

"No? You haven't seen his last few relationships… All three of which were happening at the same time."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "It's fine."

She raised a brow at him, wondering how he could be so at ease with his sister getting closer to a guy he now knew wasn't exactly good to his girlfriends.

"Laura won't be… _interested _in him. She's probably just using his attraction to her advantage."

"How do you know she won't—" She stopped herself, her eyes darting away, and realized suddenly that Laura wouldn't like Bo because she wasn't interested in men. The thought made her laugh. Finally, a woman who wouldn't fall for Bo's usual line of bullshit. Sure, she probably should've been concerned that Bo might accidentally spill some pack secrets, but, as much as her brother might think with his other head, he was smarter than that.

Comforted with the idea that her brother wasn't going to somehow screw things up and make her mom look bad by sleeping with her best friend's daughter, Chloe put her attention pack on the kids in front of her. Derek led them down to the creek, where the younger kids were quickly distracted. Chloe wasn't surprised to find Brody exploring, mostly insects and critters as he overturned rocks and walked through the shallow, rocky creek bed. Samantha, on the other hand, was hanging off a tree branch by her legs, her long dark blonde hair falling in a sheet that swung along with her. In the tree next to hers, Cora was doing the same, and on the count of three they'd swing themselves up and forward, release their legs, and flip through the air before landing in a perfect crouch. Hope, Dillon, and Noah were giving them a score out of 10, and so far Cora was winning by 2.

Derek found a dry log to sit on and she joined him, crossing her legs and resting her elbow on her knee as she leaned forward, smiling as Brody held up yet another bug for her to see, his smile sunny with excitement.

"Good job," she praised, grinning back.

He nodded before replacing the rock and moving on, splashing as he went.

Derek and Chloe watched Cora and Sam for a while, but instead of rating them aloud as the others did, they discreetly motioned fingers at each other. It wasn't until Cora's jeans caught on the branch and she slipped out of the tree, losing her balance, that the mood turned a little. Derek's eyes flashed that same blue that caught her curiosity, but faded as quickly as it had come. Cora merely dusted herself off, shot her brother a thumb's up, and climbed back into the tree to continue.

He caught Chloe staring at him, but instead of making it awkward or asking the question that was still nagging at her, she turned her attention back to the creek. "You grew up in Beacon Hills?" she asked.

He breathed a faint sigh of relief. "It's Hale territory… It goes back generations."

"Great, great, great grandfather Hale might've played in this creek then, huh?"

He grinned. "Probably… I don't know if he went looking for snakes though."

Chloe's eyes widened as Brody happily made his way over to her, a snake hanging from his fingers, not the least bit afraid. Squeaking in protest, she stood from the log and stepped behind it. "Brody, no…" She pointed back toward where he came from. "Put it back. _Gently_."

He cocked his head at her. "But I like it. I want to take it home... His name is Henry."

"His name is _not _Henry," she argued, shuffling farther away when Brody continued walking toward her. "His name is 'Dead,' if you don't stop walking toward me," she muttered.

Derek looked back at her, amused. "Afraid of a little snake?"

Her eyes flashed yellow and she snapped her teeth at him in irritation rather than real aggression. "There was an incident."

His brow furrowed curiously but her attention was back on her youngest brother. "Brody, please, you have enough pets… And this snake lives here, it grew up here, this is its home. You really want to take it away? It probably has a family."

He shrugged. "I can be its family."

Chloe shook her head, darting left when he raised his arm, the snake coiled around him as he held its head level with his thumb. She was fully aware that she was now using Derek as a shield, her hand on his shoulder, ready to shove him forward if her brother persisted. She had the whole forest to escape into, but there were six children to be taken care of and running wasn't exactly her modus operandi.

"C'mon, Chloe, Henry's friendly, I swear!"

"I don't care if he sings lullabies at night; he's not leaving this creek."

Derek snorted before shaking his head and looking back at Brody. "Listen, I know you like Henry, and he obviously likes you, but the climate that you come from is different from here. So if you took him with you, he would suffer. It might even make him sick. And you don't want that, do you?"

Brody frowned, looking down at the snake thoughtfully before he finally shook his head.

"You can still play with him here," Derek offered. "Just maybe not so close to your sister."

With a sigh, he accepted it, and walked off, taking his snake with him.

Chloe didn't realize how much her heart was racing until her brother and his scaly friend were no longer within reach. Relieved, she retook her seat on the log, and eyed Brody, or, more accurately, _Henry_, warily. Feeling eyes on her, she turned to see Derek staring.

"Thank you," she told him. "That was smart and… you handled it well."

He shrugged.

"He can be stubborn," she continued. "We basically have a farm of random animals at home. A lot of them are hurt and he nurses them back to health. Most of them get returned to the wild, but a few stay with us… They wouldn't survive otherwise." She frowned. "Mom says it should be survival of the fittest, that if they aren't capable of surviving on their own, then they shouldn't live, but… Brody's too kind-hearted for that."

"So are you."

She looked over at him, her brow furrowed.

"You like what he does, I can hear it in your voice… I bet you help him take care of them."

She glanced away. "He's only six, sometimes he doesn't know what to do; he needs help… I only take care of them when he can't; feed them, bathe them…"

He hummed, his head tipped, and then smiled. "So what's the story with the snake?"

Her eyes rolled. "It's nothing special."

"It must've been something if you can't stand to be near them."

"It's… stupid," she muttered.

"It was Bo," a voice piped up.

Their attention turned then, landing on Noah, who moved to take a seat beside her on the log. He leaned forward to see Derek as he explained, "Chloe was maybe eleven, Bo was being a jerk, and he filled her bed with snakes. She'd been having nightmares and she told dad about them… Something about being buried alive, snakes everywhere… Bo overheard and he went out into the woods. He filled a box with as many snakes as he could find and then he brought them back to the house and he filled her bed with them. She woke up screaming. It took dad an hour to convince her she wasn't still dreaming."

Chloe watched his face, not surprised when she saw the anger that still clouded Noah's expression. He was young and often quiet, but he felt things on a deeper level than the rest of them. And he was very protective of his family, which was why it bothered him so much that his brother had hurt one of their own. Reaching for him, she scrubbed her fingers through his brown hair, long enough that it kept falling in his eyes.

"It's not as bad as you make it sound, I promise. I was frightened and yeah, Bo was being a jerk. He was young and dumb and he thought he was being funny."

Noah's cheek ticked disagreeably and he turned his head to look up at her. "It _was _that bad."

Chloe didn't know what to say because, honestly, yeah, it was pretty awful. Bo had been forced to clean up the snakes, but Chloe couldn't stand to be in her room the rest of the week. She'd slept on Noah's floor and woke up crying every night, muffling it in her pillow. She never told anybody about her nightmares after that, terrified Bo would use them against her. Wrapping an arm around her brother, she hugged him to her side. "Do me a favor, all right? And just make sure Brody isn't trying to sneak that snake of his into a pocket or something."

Noah snorted, but did as she asked, standing from the log and making his way down the creek.

When she turned, she found Derek peering at her still. He didn't say anything; in fact, they each stayed quiet for the next while. It wasn't until they gathered up the kids and started back to the house that he talked, the kids all distracted with each other, bonding easily. They didn't know where Laura or Bo were, but Chloe thought that might be best; anything that distracted Bo was good for her. Having Noah and Brody remind her of Bo's earlier cruelty further worried her about the future state of the pack.

She hadn't forgotten about Deucalion's visit a year earlier or his mysterious observations. She hadn't seen him since then and her mother never brought him up, but there was a lingering tension that made her think he could and would show up when she least expected him to. Meanwhile, Moira continued to try and show Bo the ropes and Chloe kept her silence, though it was getting harder and harder to bite her tongue.

"I think I get it…" Derek said, catching her attention. She looked over, her brow furrowed, and he explained, "Why you're not sure he'll be a good alpha."

She stiffened, her eyes cast around quickly, pausing on the kids and then checking the woods. She couldn't hear Bo nearby, but if he tried, he might actually be able to keep himself hidden.

"I never said that," she reminded.

"You didn't have to. It's written on your face."

She frowned. If Derek, a virtual stranger, could tell she wasn't happy with her brother's future alpha status, what could her family see?

"Laura takes it very seriously… She's built to be an alpha, not just physically, but mentally. She takes everything our mother says to heart. It doesn't mean she always agrees with her, but she still listens, still learns… And that's the big part, right? Learning."

"My dad says it is… He says if you think you already know everything, you don't really know anything."

"My mom told me an alpha does whatever's best for the pack, even if it means sacrificing part of themselves… Sometimes, I think I'm lucky. Laura can do that, she's been raised to do that, and I… I don't know if I could." His brow furrowed. "I don't think I want that kind of responsibility."

Chloe crossed her arms loosely over her chest. "Sometimes it's not a choice… I don't think everybody always wants to do what's right. Even alphas probably have moments where they're selfish. I think what's important is that, in the end, when it comes to that choice, they don't pick themselves."

"And Bo would?"

She looked up at him and frowned. "I don't know… I don't think he would ever do anything to purposely hurt us. I just don't know if he's strong enough to sacrifice himself, if it ever came to that."

"Maybe it won't…" Derek shrugged. "Maybe he'll never have to be tested like that."

"In an ideal world," she mused. "But if what you said is right, if packs are being dismantled or killed, then I think we might have to face something big, and soon." She worried her lip with her teeth so hard she could almost taste blood.

Derek's hand found her shoulder, warm and comforting. It surprised her at first, not only that she was leaning into the touch but that she'd shared so much with him in so little time. Usually it took her longer to trust someone, but there was something about Derek that made her think he could be trusted. She didn't even try to listen to his heartbeat. Turning her head, she looked up at him, and for the first time realized that Derek was actually quite handsome.

He was still young, boyish, but he was growing into his looks. His eyes were a dark green and his skin was a little more tanned than her own. His black hair kept falling into his eyes, but she wondered if it was like Noah, who let it happen more as a defense mechanism, worried his eyes would flash and catch attention.

Just then, their attention was torn away when Cora suddenly fell back to walk with them, leaning her head back against his stomach to see him. "Can Sam stay at our house? She can stay in my room; we'll have a sleepover."

He stared down at her, his hands on her narrow shoulders, and gave her a little push to get her to walk ahead with the group. "Ask mom when we get home."

"Dillon said Noah and Brody can stay with him too." She smirked. "Maybe you can share with Chloe."

He rolled his eyes and gave her another nudge.

Cora hurried ahead to walk with the others, leaving the two teenagers to walk on silently.

"I doubt my mom will let all of us stay over," she told him. "She doesn't like it when the pack separates if others are in the area."

"Might be safer, all of us together though…"

"You think that now…" She raised a teasing eyebrow. "Wait until bed time hits and you've got six kids on your hands."

He conceded her point with a nod and watched as they hurried ahead, the treeline opening to the front lawn of the Hale house.

"Maybe later I can show you the town," he offered, looking over at her.

She smiled, nodding. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Those weren't butterflies in her stomach.

She was a werewolf, she didn't get those.

If she tried hard enough, she might just convince herself.

[**Next**: Part V.]

* * *

**Author's Note**: _Thank you to **Nienna Tinehtele, Sally T, Any Mouse, Guest, Duffster21, Bookluver9477, LadyPhoenixKnight, ChamberlinofMusic**, and **DemonicHime** for reviewing! It's so, so appreciated! _

_There will be a lot more Chloe/Derek in the next few chapters, so I hope you guys are excited for that to progress!_

_Thanks so much for reading, please leave a review, every bit helps!_

- **Lee | Fina**


	6. The Scent of a Wolf

**Title**: Blue & Gold  
**Series**: Unbalanced (1 of 3)  
**Category**: Teen Wolf/Smallville  
**Genre**: Romance/Drama  
**Ship**: Chloe Sullivan/Derek Hale  
**Chapter Rating**: PG-13/Teen  
**Overall** **Rating**: NC-17/Explicit  
**Word Count**: 6,323  
**Summary**: "The white wolf. Bound to the broken boy. Destined to meet a demon wolf. The hells will rain pain like no other, but she will survive. She will fight. And when the day comes, she will bring order again."

**_Blue & Gold_**

**Chapter Five**

_The Scent of a Wolf_

**V. **

Exploring Beacon Hills had to be put off for the evening. When they reached the house, Talia informed them they'd be having a barbecue to celebrate. Derek and Chloe were put on puppy-sitting duty while everyone pitched in to set up. The picnic tables were dressed with cloths, chairs were scattered across the lawn, and a blanket was laid out that the two matriarchs took for themselves.

Chloe observed Talia, comparing her body language and how she walked to Moira. The same regal bearing could be seen in Talia that Chloe always noticed in her mother, but she wasn't sure if that was from alpha status or from being such a highly revered pack leader in general. Much like Moira, Talia radiated confidence and knowledge; she was certain about every move she made and every word she spoke. It was fascinating. However, her curiosity about her would have to wait; she chose not to listen in on the conversation between the two alphas, leaving them to their reunion.

Chloe turned her attention to the children instead. Derek was at the grill, the scent of hamburgers heavy on the air. Cora and Sam had bonded quickly and were doing cartwheels across the lawn, while Dillon and Noah seemed to be looking over a comic book of some kind. She frowned when she realized Brody was missing, but spotted his dark hair in the lap of her mother and realized he was napping, using her as his pillow. Bo and Laura had yet to return, but she wasn't all that worried. She might think Bo could be pompous and show his hand too early, but he knew when to draw the line. She only hoped that when he realized Lauren wasn't interested in him, he didn't take it poorly. Bo didn't like to be made a fool of, Chloe knew that firsthand.

The picnic table shifted as Derek sat down behind her, the barbecue top closed to let the food cook. She turned to face him, feeling that same swooping in her stomach that she both enjoyed and was appalled at. This was no time to get a crush on someone. She had enough on her plate and it wasn't as if she'd get to spend a whole lot of time in Beacon Hills. They were leaving in three days, and who knew when they'd be back?

"I think Cora convinced our moms to let Sam stay over tomorrow night," Derek said.

She nodded. "It'll be weird for Brody, he's not used to not having her around. But it'll be good for her… She's a lot more social than he is."

"What about you?" he wondered.

She smiled slowly. "Am I staying over?"

He flushed quickly and let out a faint, awkward laugh. "No, I… I meant, what's life like back home? You have a lot of friends?"

She shrugged. "I have a few… I write for the newspaper, so if I'm not in class, I'm usually there."

"What do you write about?"

"Well, it started out about the _terrible _lunch menu, but it didn't take long to sink my claws into something more interesting…" She looked up at him, resting her elbow on the table. "I'm too curious for my own good and I guess my heightened senses help with that. So I tend to go looking for a more interesting story than whether whatever play the drama club put on was any good…" She rolled her eyes. "Even if last year's rendition of West Side Story was surprisingly awesome."

He smiled, chuckling under his breath.

"What about you?" She eyed him quickly. "I bet you're into sports."

"Guilty," he agreed, nodding.

"So was Bo. And Sam loves everything that lets her run. Noah plays soccer and he's been trying to get Brody into it too. To be honest, though, I think he takes after my dad more. He's stuck in his head a lot and it works for him. If he had a choice, I think he'd become a vet and never think twice about it."

"Maybe he could," Derek suggested. "Maybe by the time he's out of high school, things will be settled again and a few years outside of the pack wouldn't put anybody in danger."

She chewed her lip as she considered it before murmuring, "I hope so."

He left her there for a moment, pondering the possibilities, as he made his way back to the grill.

It was true that college wasn't always a 'never going to happen' situation. Point in fact, Chloe knew that Laura was attending a nearby college while balancing her duties as an apprentice under her mother. Bo had decided not to continue his education, though he'd had a number of offers given his abilities in football and basketball. Full rides, even. But he had turned them down, and it further reminded her that yes, she had some concerns, but Bo knew when the pack had to come first and, even if it meant turning down frat parties and beautiful college girls, he had done just that to learn from his mother and become the alpha he was supposed to be.

But where did that leave her? If Derek was right and local packs were being attacked, that meant that they had to be careful, they couldn't wander far from each other. Her leaving to pursue college could put them at risk. She wouldn't be around enough, even if she was emotionally attached to her family, to add to her mother's power. She wouldn't be there to defend them if something happened. She finished school in six months and then she had to decide what she was doing with her life.

Her gaze fell on her mother, on Brody, and then it moved to Samantha, to Noah, and she felt her heart constrict. Because she would always pick them, no matter how big her dreams seemed, no matter how much a part of her wanted the metaphorical inky fingertips from a long day of journalism. She would have to content herself with her personal writing and do what she could to help Bo become a better alpha.

"Those look like some deep thoughts."

Chloe looked up, smiling as she watched her dad take a seat next to her. She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "How the hotel?"

"Full," he sighed. "It's good we reserved early."

She nodded, before her brow furrowed and she leaned back. "You took a while. If I knew unloading the car would take so much time, I would've come with."

He shook his head. "I had someone to visit in town, a fellow emissary."

Understanding, she didn't ask questions. While her father no longer acted as emissary to their family, he still had strong ties to that community and she could respect that. After all, her favorite stories were his, soaking up the history of her ancestry, on both sides of her family.

"So? How do you like the Hales?" he wondered.

"I like them," she answered with no hesitation. "Sam's already made friends with Cora, Noah's bonding with Dillon, and Bo's trying to make an impression on Laura…" She snorted. "He's not going to succeed, but at least he's out of my hair. In fact, I haven't seen them in a while..."

"She could be burying the body and we'd never know."

Chloe laughed, bumping her shoulder against his.

He smiled down at her. "Bo can be charming when he wants to be."

"In this case, he's not her type. But trust me, I'm well aware of his so-called _appeal_… I think every single one of my friends had a crush on him at some point or another."

"Even Barry?"

"_Especially _Barry."

Gabe chuckled warmly, shaking his head. "What about you, pumpkin?"

She shrugged, reaching for her ear and tugging on the lobe, before casting her eyes away. "Derek's nice."

He looked at her a long moment and then turned his gaze toward the boy at the grill. "Is nice the word you want to use?"

Chloe glared at him when she felt her fair complexion darken to red. "He _is_. He's easy to relate to."

His arm slid around her, giving her a squeeze. "I know that's been hard for you to find… Sometimes it's hard to get close to people who are different from you, always worried they'll notice."

"I'm not lonely," she assured him. "I'm… content."

His mouth turned down in an unsure frown as he let out a heavy sigh. "Even if you were, you wouldn't tell us though, would you?" He shook his head. "Sometimes you care too much, Chloe. You sacrifice yourself."

"Isn't that a good quality? Sometimes sacrifice is for the greater good."

"And sometimes it's unnecessary…" He stared at her meaningfully. "You deserve to be happy, not just content. And if there's something you want, something that could do that for you, all you need to do is tell me…" He smiled at her gently. "I'd give you the whole world on a platter."

And she knew it too. If she asked her dad, he would drive her to Metropolis himself. But it wouldn't be right, it wouldn't be fair, and even he would know it. But he was her dad; before anything else, he was a dad. His children's happiness mattered to him more than pack politics or the guidance of an emissary, even if it would nag at him. She wouldn't do that, she wouldn't play his fatherly instincts against the natural wisdom that told him packs should stay as close together as possible.

"Well, I wouldn't say no to my own car," she told him, offering up a playful grin.

His laugh was deep and from the belly. It was her favorite kind of laugh; full of real, honest humor.

"Smells like dinner's almost ready," Talia's voice rang out.

Chloe turned, watching as she and Moira stood from the blanket. The kids abandoned their games and their comic books, all coming together to crowd near the barbecue. They formed a line and Chloe moved toward Derek, reaching for the bag of buns and the paper plates, preparing one for each person. Together, they worked to get everyone a plate with a burger on it before directing them toward the picnic tables, where the condiments were waiting. When they were finished, he closed the barbecue, leaving the leftover burgers to keep warm inside, while he and Chloe made their way to the last picnic table, sitting on either side of Hope to eat.

Dinner was nearly finished before Bo and Laura returned, piling their plates high and taking a seat at the newly abandoned middle table as the kids returned to playing. At the first picnic table, Talia, Moira, and Gabe were in deep conversation, no doubt about the missing or disbanded packs.

"There's a pack counsel tomorrow," Derek said quietly, drawing her attention.

They too were alone, sitting side by side, a stack of dirty plates in the center of the table, piled with forks and balled up napkins.

"I thought they weren't getting together until Saturday, before the moon," she said, frowning.

"I think they're trying to figure out how many packs are in town, get a feel for who's doing what before we meet up."

She hummed, her brow furrowed. Pushing her concern away, she looked over at him, "Something else your uncle Peter told you?"

He shrugged. "He gossips."

Half-grinning, she tipped her head. "You must be close if you tells you those things."

With a nod, he admitted, "He's probably my best friend."

Chloe rested her chin on her hand and thought it over. Lois was her best friend, always had been, but that relationship was strained. When she was younger, before Bo started acting out, he had been one of her best friends. But as the years went on, he grew out of her and spent more time with his teammates at school. She had friends, but she kept them at a distance. She was a creature of her pack, content to be on her own when she ran through the woods, but always returning to her family in the end.

"It's good you have that," she decided, looking at him.

He stared at her a long moment and she felt that pull between them. It had always been hard with her, meeting new people, wondering if they could see something different about her. Being around wolves made it easy, brought her guard down some, but she felt like it was even stronger around Derek. Talking to him felt natural, confiding in him things she hadn't even voiced to her father. She wondered if Bo was feeling the same thing as he talked with Laura, or, more accurately, _flirted _with her. Even though he'd fail to make her see him in a romantic light, could he still find himself at ease with her because they came from the same world?

Was that what she was doing with Derek? It didn't feel like that. There were threads of tension underneath, a suggestion of something more if she wanted to explore it, but she didn't feel like she had yet. Did she want to? Part of her did, but she'd always been good at tamping down on urges that she didn't need or want. Control was important to a wolf and she knew what it looked like when one didn't have it.

"Who are you running with on the Wolf Moon?" he wondered, sounding a little like he'd blurted it out while he still had the courage.

She smiled. "My pack."

"Right…" His brow furrowed. "Uh, I meant… Maybe, for a little while, we could run together."

It was funny how certain things, at least from a wolf's point of view, could sound like something so much deeper than the words themselves. Going for a run suddenly sounded like a date, something intimate, something shared on a deeper level. And maybe it was, with the Wolf Moon and all. She'd only ever run with her family, sticking close behind the younger ones to make sure they were safe. But she knew the Hales would probably run alongside them this year, and what could it hurt to run with Derek?

"Sure," she agreed.

He grinned back and her heart did that funny thud thing.

"Bo, Laura, you're on clean up duty," Talia called out, looking between them, an eyebrow raised.

Laura nodded immediately, while Bo sighed, but complied.

"Chloe, will you get the kids ready? We're going to head in soon," Moira said.

Climbing from the picnic table, she started gathering up her younger siblings, along with the socks and shoes they'd discarded during their play. Derek helped, hiking Hope onto his side as he told Dillon to gather up his comic books and got Cora to fold up the blanket in the grass. With promises to visit the following afternoon, after the Hale kids had finished school, they were off back to the hotel.

For the rest of the night, Chloe smiled to herself, looking forward to Saturday and running under a full moon with a handsome Hale.

* * *

So far as Chloe could tell, there wasn't anything special about Beacon Hills. It looked like any other small town; everybody seemed to know everybody, business was mostly run out of quaint, little shops, and, like everywhere else, they were completely blind to what lived among them. She imagined it was more tourist-heavy than usual, the Wolf Moon drawing more packs to the area that any other time of the year. School had started back up, meaning the Hale kids had gone in while the Sullivan pack were free to roam around as they pleased that Friday afternoon.

Gabe had the kids while Moira and Talia went to meet with the other packs. Bo and Laura were invited along with them, while Chloe was left to her exploring. She made her way down to the main road and casually walked through each shop. She enjoyed the bookstore the most though, which would've been no surprise to anyone in her family. Chloe loved reading as much as she loved writing. There was always a book, a page marked and waiting. She moved up and down the musty aisles of the bookstore, letting her fingers linger over cracked spines, tracing gold lettering, lingering on familiar authors.

If there was any smell that could beat the fresh, crisp air of the forest, it was a book shop, at least for her. She loved the smell of aged pages, the dust that floated in the air, the leather of the chairs and the polish used on the shelves. She could waste her whole day there, breathing it in, cracking open covers just to read the first sentence, the first word, and wait for it to snare her. She was a physical person by nature, but books had a way of harnessing her mind, making her wolf go still, lay down, rest. Give her an arm chair and a book and she was set.

Truth be told, she wasn't sure how much time had passed before a familiar scent began to drown out the books. Her head rose from the book, brow furrowed, and she sniffed, following it, moving aisle to aisle, looking for him. She could feel he was close, even hear his steady heartbeat, but she couldn't see him. The store wasn't overly large, but it was big enough that it was easy to get lost in the stacks. She followed his heart and the strengthening scent of him, finally catching sight of the tail end of his jacket just at the end of the fantasy section, but he kept walking. She hurried her steps, but as she passed the same bookshelf, she nearly ran right into him. His grin told her that's exactly what he was aiming for.

Chloe's eyes narrowed. "How'd you find me?"

"Tracked you," he said, shrugging one shoulder.

"You've got my scent already?"

He circled around her, his head cocked. "You don't have mine?"

Her lips pursed, because fine, yes, she had picked up on his scent while they were in the woods yesterday. It was distinct; she could almost taste the elements leaking from him. A bitter twist of fire, like the ash flaking off of dying embers; fresh, clear water, cold enough she breathed in the chill; the musk of earth, a little damp; and a crisp breeze, smelling distantly of rain.

"You smell sweet…" He leaned in close, enough that she felt her heart thud in her chest. He tipped his head down low and breathed in, his nostrils flaring, and his eyes closing slowly as he let her scent settle inside him, like it was attaching itself to his person, never to be forgotten. "Behind the bitter scent of coffee, there's paper and ink and fresh tracks in the mud… I could smell it blocks away… You linger."

She stared up at him from the top of her eyes, watching as his slowly opened, staring down at her, a warm green. The tension she felt then hit her low in the belly, a tight knot that made her fingers twitch with a need she rarely felt or paid much mind to. Standing this close, she could smell the school on him. He didn't wear cologne, wolves rarely did. She wondered if his skin tasted as good as he smelled. She wondered if he was as strong as he looked and how it would feel to have him pressed against her until he drowned out the familiar scent of old books and all she could feel was his chest expanding with each breath, his hands moving on her skin.

Her eyes turned yellow against her will, briefly irritating her since she'd long ago gotten control of that. She shook her head, trying to find her restraint. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" she asked, grasping at straws.

"I got out early for basketball practice."

"Shouldn't you be there then?"

He shrugged. "I have a few minutes before it starts… It won't take me long to get back to the school."

"So you thought you'd stalk me to a bookstore on the few minutes you have in-between?"

"I thought I'd see if you wanted to come to my practice," he clarified.

Her lips twitched, raising a brow at him before she circled around him and started moving down the aisle, putting her attention on the books. "Really? And you think I'm a fan of basketball because...?"

"Are you?"

"Don't you think that's a good question for _before _you ask someone to your practice?"

"I only thought about it a little while ago."

Chloe laughed, turning to face him. "So you've put significant thought into it then," she teased.

He watched her, his head tipped. "Can I try again?"

Stifling a smile, she nodded, crossing her arms loosely over her stomach.

"So I have a basketball practice in a few minutes and, if you like that kind of thing, I was wondering if you wanted to come…? If not, maybe we could just hang out after, get pizza or something?"

She ducked her eyes momentarily before saying, "I like basketball."

"So you'll come?" he asked, grinning crookedly.

Her gaze met his. "If this is so you can show off… You know it's not _nearly_ as impressive when I can do the same things as you, right?"

"You haven't seen me play yet," he said, a thread of confidence showing itself in his voice.

Narrowing her eyes, Chloe stared at him a moment, amused. "You haven't seen me either."

"Are you challenging me to one-on-one?"

She let her smile form then, full and flirty. "I am."

"Shake on it?" He held a hand out for her.

She glanced down at his hand and then took it, briefly surprised at the zip of electricity that seemed to ricochet over her skin. Her eyes met his, seeing them turn blue as he startled. He blinked them back to green and glanced away. "You still want to watch my practice?"

"You don't think that'll give me an edge?" she joked.

His lips curled at the corners. "I'm willing to take the chance."

She was leaving town on Sunday and she might not ever see Derek again. They lived on opposite sides of the country and they'd only known each other for a day. But the swooping in her stomach made it easy to say yes, to put aside the reality of the situation and just enjoy herself. Sometimes she forgot there was a world outside of her family. She had friends at school, but it was different when you had to keep such a significant part of herself hidden from them. Derek not only knew, but lived the same kind of life. He was easy to relate to, and it didn't hurt that he was easy on the eyes.

He was on time for his practice, barely, and she took up a seat on the stands, not the least bit surprised to see him showing off, not just for her, but in general. It reminded her a little of Bo, but Derek didn't do it in a way that made others look bad, only himself look good. Unlike Bo's coach back home, however, Derek's called him on it and told him to pass the ball and play as a team. As soon as he got his head back into it, he was a better player. Having grown up with a pack, it often made sports easier. It was natural for a wolf to rely on their team, to know their strengths and weaknesses and react to them appropriately. Though a pack and a team were different in terms of just how much they mattered, the same dynamic could be applied to them. It was why Bo was always good at sports, even if he was a show off. While Chloe was impressive in phys ed, she never joined a team, adopting a lone wolf attitude in terms of school. She preferred the newspaper office to the stench of a locker room. While she could play, and well, her interests fell in other places.

It helped too that the newspaper office had some of the better computers, which she could proudly say she wielded rather well. She'd originally honed the skill in an effort to hold on to her dream of being an investigative reporter. With her tracking skills as a wolf, combined with her abilities to wield and bend information on the interwebs, all coalescing with her sharp wit and writing abilities, she was sure that she would be the top in her field. And even now, while she accepted that the pack wouldn't be able to accommodate that dream, she still kept herself sharp. The internet was a wonderful thing and if she could use it to her advantage, then why not?

Turning her attention back to the game, she watched Derek as he moved fluidly over the gym floor, dribbling the ball with ease, confidence. He passed it back and forth between him and his teammates before making the final shot, his mouth already curving in a knowing smile before it had reached the net, swishing through. He glanced back at her and she didn't bother hiding a returning grin.

Chloe wasn't new to the world of boys, she just didn't often have time for them. And dating was almost non-existent, not with her lifestyle, not with her priorities. Maybe it was an excuse to say she would rather date a wolf, but it relieved so much of the stress. There weren't many packs nearby, and those that were came to her mother for advice, meaning they respected her to a degree where they wouldn't let teenage hormones make them look bad.

Truth be told, though, Chloe couldn't remember ever feeling quite this interested in a boy before. She'd had crushes, boys that made her smile involuntarily, but they were passing, easily forgotten. There was something about Derek that felt different. Maybe it was that he was a wolf, maybe it was just chemistry, she wasn't sure, but she liked it.

Practice lasted a little over an hour before the boys went to shower and the coach started packing everything up. Chloe climbed down the stands, her bag over her shoulder, bumping her hip. She checked her watch, wondering if her mother was back from her pack meeting yet. They hadn't set an exact time to meet back at the hotel, but she knew it was best to be home before dark. Talia had suggested taking everyone into the woods for a run; she thought it would be easier, and safer, if everyone was more familiar with the preserve.

While she waited for Derek to finish showering, she took one of the spare balls off the rack, dropped her bag and jacket on the stands, and started dribbling it. It'd been a while since she played, but, like most things physical, her body adapted quickly. Sometimes she wondered what it was like for humans, not to feel the pull and release of every muscle like it was an individual elastic in her body. To be so aware of every part of herself that the world seemed to slow for her to react to it in the way she wanted. She passed the ball back and forth, bouncing it from the ground to her left palm and back. Ground, hand, ground, hand. She started walking, passing it back through her legs, catching it in her palm, twisting her arm back and letting it slide down the length of it, over her shoulders, behind her neck, and down to the other hand. She flicked her wrist, tossing the ball in the air a few inches, making it spin before she caught it on the tip of her finger. It was slow at first, getting the hang of it, but then she repeated the whole process, faster and faster, until the ball was an extension of her, moving fluidly, following the pattern she set.

And finally she let it fall back to the ground before her palm knocked it behind her back. She twisted, caught it, and hopped into the air, shooting the ball, and listening for the expected swish as it landed through the net. She didn't open her eyes until she heard it bounce off the floor.

"Two points for Sullivan."

She turned her head, not surprised to find Derek watching her, smiling crookedly.

"You're not bad," he said, moving to gather up the ball. He tossed it up and over his shoulder, meeting it with the heel of his foot, bouncing it forward. He caught it with his fingers and dribbled circles around her, bouncing it through his legs and passing it around his waist, between his hands, without having to look at it, trusting it would land where he wanted it to. She pivoted slowly, following his movements, his hands, how he turned his feet, his legs. And when she caught the pattern, she moved, her hand cut through air, slipped the ball out of his grasp and bounced it back behind her, under the spread of her legs. They danced around each other, reaching, taking, passing, the ball moving between them, arcing over her hip and landing back in his hand as he sped behind her.

He stepped in close, his front to her back, the ball bouncing in front of her, his arms extended on either side of her, his long fingers bouncing against it like they were playing over the keys of piano. And then they moved together, leaning right, the ball bouncing from his right hand to her right hand, hitting the ground and moving to their left, back and forth. She took a step back and he moved with her, anticipating her. She'd never seen anyone move so fluidly together.

Their right hands bounced the ball, back and forth, but his left fell to her stomach, fingers spread. She felt it like a brand, hot and heavy through the thin cotton of her shirt. She could feel the ball meet her palm, hear the staccato of it bouncing, but it was distant. Her focus was more on him, on his breath skittering over her neck, the heat of his body, the strength of it, his scent filling her senses.

She went to turn, her hips moving before the rest of her. And the ball dropped away, rolling across the floor. He didn't turn with her, he met her, standing tall, and staring down at her with an intensity she'd never seen before. His hand settled on the small of her back, holding her close, though she knew she could break away without trouble. She just didn't want to. Had she thought he was handsome? That word suddenly seemed lacking.

He was so warm, she could feel heat coming off of him and sinking into her skin. And her mind flashed to the forest bed, to what it would be like to lay with him in the grass, the cool air prickling at her skin while he warmed her. His head ducked low, as if he knew what she thought of. As if he could see that clearing, the moonlight casting it a faint blue. The grass tickling at her back, catching in her hair. And his body, his frame, settling over her, swamping her. Her hands on his shoulders, fingers dug in, while he settled comfortably in the cradle of her hips.

He inhaled deeply, a faint growl leaping his lips, and she could almost taste the tension, the arousal, that lingered in the air. He reached for her, his hand falling to her cheek, his fingers stroking through her hair. Her eyes took on a golden glow, washing over his face and falling lower; she could almost see his pulse thudding quickly at his throat. He was still wet from his shower, a drop of water tumbled down his skin, disappearing under his shirt. Her tongue darted over her dry lips, a hint of fang flashing at him, and she felt his nails grow, tear through her shirt, and dig lightly into her back, scraping gently, not enough to break skin, just enough to tease.

He was getting closer, she could almost feel his lips, like a phantom brush of what was to come.

"Should we be worried about a litter of puppies in the near future?" a snarky voice called out. "Don't expect me to babysit."

Derek's head raised quickly, his eyes cutting toward the tall, smirking boy making his way across the gymnasium, looking all too proud of his interruption.

"Let me guess, the infamous Peter," Chloe said, raising an eyebrow.

He grinned at her, making a show of bowing.

"Your entrance could use a little work."

Derek snorted.

Peter's lips pursed, but he didn't let it foil his good mood. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Peter, this is Chloe Sullivan, Moira's daughter."

"Ahh…" He nodded, looking her over approvingly. "You're not quite as… _brutish _as your brother, are you?"

She stiffened, eyes narrowing, and turned to face him completely, ignoring Derek's hand on her hip, squeezing. "Brutish is an interesting word to use… Most try a more polite attempt. But you do like to be theatrical, don't you?"

"It's one of my finer qualities."

"I think we have different definitions of what a 'quality' is."

Peter cast his eyes toward Derek. "You need to work on your choice of girlfriends… They never like me."

"Maybe it's your bad timing," he replied, his brows hiking meaningfully.

"What? _That?_ Can you blame a concerned uncle for making sure the moon isn't kicking up a storm with your teenage hormones?" He tucked his arms behind him as he walked a circle around them.

When Derek had done it to her, showing off his basketball skills, it had been different, but now Chloe felt a shiver or warning, her gut twisting unpleasantly. Something was off about Peter and her wolf knew it. This wasn't a case of irritation because he'd interrupted what would've been a not so innocent moment. This was something else. Like Deucalion had, he tugged at her instincts, and they were screaming at her to be careful.

"What are you even doing here?" Derek wondered.

He shrugged. "The pack counsel went their separate ways… I was bored."

"There are strangers roaming all over your territory and instead of keeping an eye on them, you decided to visit your nephew at school?" Chloe frowned, eyeing him curiously. "Small town life must be riveting for you."

His lips curled up slowly, a mocking smirk that briefly reminded her of Bo, right before he made someone look bad. "Should I take a leaf out of your book and start seeking out whatever attractive wolf gets my tail swishing? What's it been, a _day? _You know, wolves have always been quicker to react to their base instincts, but you should probably try to exercise some restraint."

Her eyes flashed then, disliking his snide tone and his implication.

Her chest expanded as she drew in a deep breath.

"_Peter_," Derek barked, his eyes narrowed.

With fake innocence, Peter raised his hands in innocence. "Just remember my warning, kiddies…" He turned on his heel then, making his exit, happy to have the last word.

Chloe felt her wolf shifting inside her unhappily, eager to react. But attacking Peter, either physically or verbally, wasn't smart. This wasn't her territory and, for all she knew, they'd just gotten off on the wrong paw. Sure, he shouldn't have called her brother _brutish_, but she couldn't exactly argue his point. Yes, Bo had his moments where oaf and brute fit him just fine. But those were things a sister was allowed to think; having a stranger voice them gnawed at her.

"Ignore him… He just likes to stir things up sometimes… He gets bored."

Her attention returned to the boy beside her, looking uncomfortable and uncertain about the situation. It wasn't Derek's fault and she couldn't, and wouldn't, rely on him to fight her battles or stand up for her. They were from different packs and so would always have different alliances. His would be to Peter, whether he agreed with him or not, and hers would be to Bo, even if what was said was true.

"I think you said something about getting pizza earlier," she suggested, offering a half-smile.

He grinned back, nodding.

They walked back to the stands for her to gather up her bag and coat while he hooked his backpack over his shoulders. As they left the gym, their hands brushed against each other, and she felt her fingers twitch, wanting to reach out and tangle with his. But Peter had raised a good point. The moon was coming and it always played with feelings, made them more intense. She and Derek barely knew each other, and they didn't have much time for in-depth conversation. The point was questionable anyway; they'd be going their separate ways soon enough. But a large part of her couldn't care less about that. She was seventeen and for the first time in her life, she was going to let things play out without trying to figure out what the end result would be beforehand.

So when they stepped outside into the sun and started down the sidewalk, she simply smiled as his fingers curled around hers, one after the other, until finally, their palms met, fingers sliding into the slots between each other's. It was a new feeling, not unwelcome, and something was just right about it. She could blame it on the moon or overanalyze it to death later. For now, she was just going to go eat pizza with a cute guy and not worry about the consequences.

[**Next**: Part VI.]

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**Author's Note**: _Thank you to **hsmrmae, Nienna Tinehtele, Guest**, and** Duffster21**! It means a lot that you've been such faithful readers and reviewers! This one is actually one of my favorite chapters and I had a ton of fun writing it. The basketball scene where they move in sync was written to the song 'Let the Drummer Kick,' by Citizen Cope, which I highly recommend._

_Thank you all for reading! Please leave a review!_

- **Lee | Fina**


	7. We Put the UST in Lust

**Title**: Blue & Gold  
**Series**: Unbalanced (1 of 3)  
**Category**: Teen Wolf/Smallville  
**Genre**: Romance/Drama  
**Ship**: Chloe Sullivan/Derek Hale  
**Chapter Rating**: PG-13/Teen  
**Overall** **Rating**: NC-17/Explicit  
**Word Count**: 5,080  
**Summary**:"The white wolf. Bound to the broken boy. Destined to meet a demon wolf. The hells will rain pain like no other, but she will survive. She will fight. And when the day comes, she will bring order again."

**_Blue & Gold_**

**Chapter Six **

-_We Put the UST in Lust_-

**VI**.

Talia had suggested a camp out and the Sullivan family had happily agreed. Given they would all be running most of the following night, this would be their last night to spend time together just relaxing. Blankets were spread out over the ground to sit on while a campfire was set up. Bo was carving sticks for the younger kids while Laura helped them put marshmallows on the end. Sitting together, Moira and Talia were talking over a bottle of wine, and once again Chloe noticed that her father wasn't present. Her mom had said he had business to tend to after the pack meeting and she took it to mean he was with the emissary he spoke of before. While she understood, his absence made the pack feel incomplete.

Her father was one of the closest people in her life, especially with Lois so far away. He was her guide, yes, but he was also who she turned to when she needed to vent; when she didn't want advice, just an ear to listen. Her mother could do the same, but there were some things Chloe just didn't share with her. Like her feelings on pack politics, her concerns about Bo, her desire to be a writer. Sometimes she felt like her mother had expectations of her, and she feared letting her down. Her dad, on the other hand, would accept her in any and every way.

Which was why she felt like talking to him now. Because there was something happening, something that was tugging at the strings of her heart, and she felt herself losing all sense of what was smart. Was that what love was like? Forgetting the rest of the world and focusing on the here and now? It didn't seem logical; in fact, it seemed very flawed. But she liked how she felt when she stood with Derek, when she talked to him, when his fingers tangled with hers. Part of her knew where it was leading, while another part of her told her to be careful, that it was too fast, it was stupid, she should think it through.

Wolves were always physical, reacting with their bodies, taking pleasure and not apologizing for it. She could understand the appeal, she'd just never let herself. Bo, on the other hand, seemed to seek out pleasure at every chance. And maybe that was what kept Chloe from doing the same. She didn't like how he behaved a lot of the time and didn't want to mimic his actions. But there was no harm here, especially if she could keep hold of her control. The problem was, standing so close to Derek, her every breath was tinged with him, and her wolf was pacing, howling inside her.

"You wanna go for a walk?" he asked.

She peered up at him, the logical side of her brain telling her both that a walk was harmless and that he would understand if she said she was happy where she was. The illogical, lust-filled part of her wanted to step into the dark woods and see what happened. It wanted to run and have him chase her. Her Instinct had never lied to her, but it was silent now. It wasn't warning her to go back and it wasn't encouraging her to go forward. She was at an impasse.

"Maybe just to the creek," she decided and took a step forward.

They disappeared into the woods, leaving the comfort of their families behind, all crowded around a fire, smoke and burnt marshmallow filtering up into the air.

For the first while, they were silent, nothing but the sound of their feet on the forest bed, of animals moving around them, and each other's breathing could be heard. When she focused, she could hear his heartbeat too, a little faster than normal, and she imagined her own was the same.

"Peter didn't come tonight," she noticed.

He glanced at her. "I think he met a girl from a different pack," he shared, half-smiling.

"Poor girl," she joked.

He laughed under his breath. "He's really not so bad when you get to know him."

She looked over at him and nodded. "Bo too."

His brow furrowed. "What he did to you, with the snakes…?"

She nodded.

"How'd you forgive him?"

Chloe didn't answer right away, considering his question for a while as they continued to walk, the pale moonlight filtering through the branches above, vaguely showing the way in front of them. If it wasn't for their superior eye sight, it might have been hard to navigate, but they had no trouble. It helped too that Derek knew the woods like the back of his hand, turning her right, his hand on her hip, to direct her down toward the creek.

"I didn't," she admitted, sounding a little surprised herself. "I mean, I don't hate him for it, but I think… it made me cautious."

"Suspicious?"

She looked up at him. "Maybe a little. I… I don't think he did it to hurt me. I honestly think he thought it'd be funny." She shrugged. "He might've even thought it would help me get over my nightmares, if I realized that snakes couldn't hurt me."

"Still, not the best way to help someone get over something."

Shaking her head, she sighed, "No, but Bo's never been all that insightful."

He hummed, reaching for her hand to help her over a tree, despite knowing she was fully capable of leaping up and over it without help. She still let him take her hand, mostly because she liked it, how warm and large it was, folding around her fingers. The creek wasn't as loud as she remembered, but they didn't have six kids making noise either. They retook their seats on the fallen log of before, though this time they were a little closer.

"Some things aren't forgivable," he told her decisively.

"Maybe… It depends on the person. I trusted Bo because he was my brother, because you never do anything to hurt your family… It makes it easier to live with him, to stand beside him, because he's my brother, but that doesn't change the fact that I won't ever completely trust him again."

"People do stupid things… Things that seem right in the moment…" He reached up, brushing a hand through his hair. "Like you said, maybe he thought he was helping you get over your fears."

She peered at him thoughtfully. "What did you do?" she wondered.

He stiffened, his eyes on the ground. "What do you mean?"

"You feel guilty," she explained. "I can hear it."

He glanced at her, his lips pursed. "What I did can't be forgiven."

She reached for him, catching his chin, and turned it toward him. "Does this have anything to do with your eyes?"

His breath left him in a rush and, as if she'd called on it, his dark green eyes swirled into a bright, icy blue, even more vivid than her mother's on a regular day.

"Do you know what it means?" he wondered.

She stared at his eyes, so very different from the gold of hers. It should've worried her, made her second guess what kind of person, what kind of _wolf _he was. But it didn't. "A loss of innocence," she murmured.

He let out a snort at her wording. "It means I took an innocent life," he corrected.

"Same thing," she dismissed.

"Is it?" He turned to stare at her, seemingly wanting an honest answer.

"You tell me..." She stroked her thumb up his cheek, to just under his eyes.

"I killed her… It was my fault. I—I let her get bit…"

"Who bit her?"

"An alpha from a visiting pack; they were in town a couple years ago, something was happening… Nobody ever explained what. Not even Peter."

She tipped her head, waiting for him to gather his thoughts.

His eyes stayed blue, but fell, searching as if his memories would be found in the wet leaves that covered the ground. "Her name was Paige, she was human. And I…"

"You loved her," Chloe caught on, her voice gentle.

"I thought I did…" His brow furrowed. "But you don't hurt people you love, do you?"

"Maybe not on purpose."

He swallowed tightly. "I… I wanted to be with her, always, but… How was it going to work? She was human and I… wasn't." He shook his head. "Peter said it would blow up eventually. He wouldn't leave it alone. He said she'd figure it out or I'd change when I didn't mean to. And she'd hate me, she'd be scared, she wouldn't get it, but… If she was just one of us…" His voice was speeding up, like he was trying to convince himself even as he spoke. "So he said he could talk to one of the other alphas. They would want to impress mom, it would be easy… And one night, I asked her to meet me at the school… I hid while it happened, while she was run down and bit. I— I changed my mind when she screamed. I didn't want her to get hurt. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair, but… It was too late."

Chloe stayed silent, and knew as he spoke that this was the first time he was sharing it with anybody outside of his family.

"But she wasn't changing, it wasn't working…"

"She rejected the bite."

"She didn't mean to, it just happened." He shook his head, turning his eyes away. "So I took her away, I… I hid her and I held her as she struggled, but… It was too much, she— She couldn't take the pain anymore." His mouth trembled as his breathing picked up. "I tried to take away as much as I could, but it wasn't working, it didn't last long…"

Chloe reached for him, her hand covering his as it balled into a fist on his knee, his nails forming into sharp, angry claws. She didn't say anything, she just stroked her thumb over his, even as blood slipped out from the cracks of his hands, his nails digging deep into his palm.

"She asked me to make it stop…" his voice trembled. "So I did. I… I broke her neck and she… She just went limp." His eyes flashed a brighter blue as he looked at her. "I killed her."

She gazed at him a long moment. "Sometimes desperate people do desperate things… and they don't turn out the way they want them to."

He shook his head, grounding his teeth together. "If I'd just left her alone… She'd be alive."

"Maybe," she allowed. "And maybe, even knowing what would happen, she'd still have tried to know you."

"_Why?_"

"If you loved her, what makes you think she didn't love you?"

He swallowed tightly, turning his eyes away. "I screwed up."

"And you regret it." She squeezed his hand.

It took him a moment, but he squeezed back.

They stayed silent for a while, just letting the quiet of the forest sink into them. She'd known the moment his eyes turned blue that something had happened, he'd done something, but the most telling part of his story was that he regretted what happened. That Paige's death was a result of a boy who loved her and didn't understand the consequences of his actions. He was trying to keep her when he had her bit, trying to spare her when he broke her neck, and while she didn't agree with it, she could understand why.

"Does it bother you?" he wondered, looking down at her.

His eyes shone so brightly in the dark.

She shook her head, stroking her fingers beneath them. "Does it bother you?"

His gaze fell. "It was my fault."

"Do you want my opinion, or do you prefer the guilt?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"You should've asked Paige, should've trusted her… But you were young Derek, you still are… For us, the bite is hereditary, we were born into it, and it seems like a gift. But to a human…? You have to let them decide if that's the life they want, and if it isn't, then maybe that's how it's supposed to be…" She sighed, frowning to herself. "When it comes to Paige, I think you made a decision because you were afraid… A decision that was negatively influenced a lot."

"Even if it was, it doesn't change things. I agreed. I let him bite her… I'm the reason she died. Because I was selfish."

She paused for a moment, her brow furrowed. "Is that why you don't think you'd want to be alpha?"

He shrugged. "What's it matter? Laura will be alpha; she deserves it."

"She probably does, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware of why you don't want it…"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you want to be alpha instead of Bo?"

Her lips pursed. "I want the idealistic world where my mother lives forever and stays on as alpha until I'm old and grey."

He hummed, but stared at her thoughtfully. "Do you think you could do it…? If you had the chance? Would you want to be an alpha?"

She shook her head before shrugging. "I don't know… Personally, I hope I don't have to find out."

Derek stared out into the woods, watching the water rush over the rocks for a while. "Do you think it can work? A human and a wolf…?"

"Are you asking me if I think you and Paige would've lasted if she hadn't died?"

He frowned. "Maybe…" He shook his head. "But it's different now. Maybe I'm different now." He turned to look at her. "I feel different around you… It's not like how it was with Paige."

Her lips twitched. "I don't expect you to fall in love with me in two days, Derek."

He ducked his head, letting out a faint laugh.

"I won't even be here after Sunday."

His smile faded then as he raised his head, looking more serious. "Do you feel it though?"

She stared at his profile a moment, the breeze faintly rustling his hair. "It's probably just the moon…"

He nodded.

"And we're the same age, we can relate to each other. So that probably plays into it…"

Even as she was saying it though, she felt that tether around her heart tighten and tug.

"My brother used to change girlfriends weekly and he still thought it was special and new every time… Not that he's really the standard I hold myself to."

She felt like she was rambling, like she was making excuses for why she felt something drawing her to him.

"What if that's not it? What if, just this once, it _is _different?" He turned to her, staring at her searchingly. "I can talk to you… I feel like I _want_ to." He shook his head. "I've never told anyone about Paige, not even Laura. Peter only knows because he was there…"

She swallowed thickly before admitting, "I've never talked to anyone about Bo…"

He was leaning forward, and she felt the warmth of his breath over her cheek. It was like in the gym, when that tension started to consume them, filling in all the space around them, pressing in until there was only them. She could hear his heart. Or was that hers? Or were they were so in sync there was no way to tell? He reached for her, stroking her hair back and behind her ear, tracing it with his fingers while the side of his hand dragged down her cheek. And her breath left her shakily, her heart felt like it was trembling within her chest.

Derek ducked his head low, pressing his face into the crook of her neck, and her head feel back. She felt his nose drag up her throat as he breathed her in, his lips were right behind it, pausing against the pulse thudding away. He moved higher, his hand burying in her hair, and he panted at the hinge of her jaw, his nose pressed flat against her ear. She turned her face toward him and his mouth slid over her cheek until it reached the corner of her lips. Their eyes met, blue and gold, and she felt his breath skitter over her parted lips. Could he feel hers on his? She pressed forward an inch and never blinked as she stroked her tongue under the bow of his lips. He reacted immediately, his lips covering hers, almost bruising and unrepentant for it. Chloe threw hesitation out the window and focused on the sensation of his lips moving over hers, his teeth grazing, scraping, his tongue stroking, soothing, tasting. The tension was both ebbing and heightening, a fluctuation of enough or needing more.

He leaned against her, chest to chest, his arm braced on the log behind her. His fingers slid down from her hair, stroking the nape of her neck, dragging slowly down her back, light enough that it tickled. She inhaled sharply, tipping her head back as she shivered, a wave of feeling pulsing across her skin. He kissed her chin, lightly nipping her skin, and ducked his mouth lower, kissing across her neck. She could understand why people lost themselves to this. Why wolves were so physical. It felt good, _really _good, and she wanted _more_.

She found his mouth again and bit his lip, tugging on it, grinning when he let out a breathy laugh. It felt right, easy, even familiar in some odd way. She didn't feel nervous or awkward, although those weren't feelings she generally felt anyway. But here, having no real background of making out with boys to lean on, she thought she would. She thought she'd wonder where to put her hands or how to move her lips, but it was instinctual; she knew Derek would tip his head to the right, that he'd lick her lip just before he dragged a fang over it. She knew his hand would slide up her back, fingers walking over her shoulder and moving down her arm, teasing the inside of her elbow, before they reached up, skimmed over her wrist, and finally found her fingers, knotting them together. Was it like this for everyone?

"No." His voice was heavy, deeper than she'd ever heard it.

"I said that out loud?"

He smiled, proud that he'd had an effect on her, as if it wasn't already obvious he had. "It doesn't always feel like that…" He raised an eyebrow looking down at her. "I don't know how, but I know what you'll like… I know what you want…" He rubbed the pad of his thumb against her palm and brought her hand up, turning it over so he could kiss her wrist. He met her eyes as he dragged his teeth over her pulse.

"Senses are stronger closer to the moon…" she murmured, her eyelids weighing heavy over her eyes as she watched him.

"They are," he agreed, his blue eyes peering up at her. "But not like this."

Chloe knew he was right, but she wasn't sure what to do. She felt like everything was on overload and she just needed a minute to collect herself.

"When we were at the book store earlier," he said, eyeing her. "Were you looking for something in particular?"

Tension bled out of her shoulders and she offered a half-smile, appreciating his attempt at levity. "Not really…" She shrugged. "I like the smell."

His nose wrinkled. "It was musty. I could smell mold on some of them."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "It's history. Some of those books are probably centuries old."

"He needed to air that place out."

She shook her head. "I like it, it's comforting… I can get lost there."

He sat back, but kept her hand in his, thumb absently drawing circles on her palm. "What section?"

"Adventure… Maybe a crime or mystery novel."

He raised an eyebrow curiously.

With a shrug, she explained, "I used to dream of being an investigative journalist."

He nodded. "You said you wrote for your school newspaper, right?"

She smiled. "Yeah… It's a passion of mine. My dad encouraged it; he said it was good to have a life outside the pack, to have something to fall back on."

"What's your favorite book?" he wondered.

Her head tipped. "Are you sure you want to talk about this? Because if you get me started, I can talk for hours."

He grinned, ducking his eyes. "I don't mind… I like your voice."

Her heart thudded, expanding and skipping in her chest. Trying to play it off, she said, "You asked for it…" She took a deep breath, in part for show.

It was easy to fall into conversation after that. They jumped from subject to subject, from books to sports to school, and lost track of time completely. For the first time in her life, Chloe felt like she was really relating to someone, like they were getting her on a wavelength that most couldn't. That was the price paid when growing up in a pack made solely of her family. But this was different, being with Derek felt right. Making him laugh made her stomach flip and her own laughter bubble up in reply. He still hadn't let go of her hand and she liked that, she liked how he held on to a piece of her like it fit there, like it had become a part of him.

It wasn't until the moon was directly above them that they decided to head back to the house. She was surprised no one from either side of their families had come looking for them, but appreciated it too much to worry. The air was cool as they moved through the woods, climbing over trees and ducking under branches until they found a well-worn path. Their voices quieted the closer they got to his house, though they both knew that heightened hearing meant that if they wanted to, their families could pick up on what they were saying if they tried.

She just could make out the flickering of the dying campfire when Derek tugged on her hand, bringing her to a stop. The faint snoring ahead told her most of them were asleep, but she could hear the quiet voices of her mother and Talia, so she knew not everyone had gone to sleep. She looked up at Derek, standing close enough that she could feel his body heat soaking into her skin. He glanced briefly toward their families before looking back at her and dipping his head low, pausing just short of her mouth. She lifted up onto her tiptoes and met his lips. It wasn't as frenzied or passionate as before; it didn't make her brain blink out; it was just sweet and warm. She could imagine spending whole mornings doing just that, lingering at his lips, tasting every shaky exhale that left him.

When they leaned back, she smiled at him, turning on her heel and making her way toward the others. She got four steps before he caught up to her, grinning to himself, his head ducked, hair falling into his eyes. Only this time, she didn't think he was trying to hide the bright blue of them. At least she hoped not. Even knowing why they changed, she thought they were rather beautiful. She was sorry that Paige had died and that Derek struggled with the part he played in it. But she wasn't there to judge; it wasn't her place. She wondered what her dad's advice would have been if it had happened to her instead. She hoped she never had to find out.

When they stepped through the tree line to the yard, they found the kids scattered over various blankets. Cora and Samantha were lying together, Hope snugly curled up between them. Noah and Dillon each had their own blankets and had cocooned themselves inside, just a few feet apart, a pair of flashlights and a stack of comic books abandoned nearby. She wasn't surprised to find most of the snoring was coming from Bo, who wasn't using a blanket at all, sprawled out spread eagle on the grass.

"Hey," Moira said, patting a spot beside her where she sat beside the fire.

Chloe walked over, kneeling in the spot next to her, leaning her head against her mother's side.

Across from them, Talia sat with a faint smile, her face flicking with shadows as the fire died down. Derek sat beside her, taking up one of the abandoned sticks and pulling out a marshmallow to roast.

"How was the creek?" Talia asked, looking between them.

Derek froze momentarily, surprised she knew, but shook it off quickly enough. "Fine. Quiet."

Moira stroked her fingers through Chloe's hair, staring at her temple, the pattern soothing. "It must be nice for both of you, to have someone closer to your age, to relate to…"

Chloe nodded silently, her eyes focused on the marshmallow slowly browning in the fire.

"Maybe we should do this more often… I have to admit, it's been too long since we've seen each other," Talia suggested.

"We could come back up this summer, and stay longer than a few days."

"The kids would like that. I don't think Cora's ever bonded with anyone as quickly as she did Samantha."

Chloe didn't hear the rest of what they were saying, instead she raised her eyes to meet Derek's. And she found herself wondering what it would be like. If by the summer this feeling would have faded. If, without the moon, they'd still be drawn to each other. And even if they weren't, it'd still be nice to have that connection with someone, to know somebody outside of the family.

She smiled.

And he smiled back.

"Derek, your marshmallow's on fire," Talia said.

Chloe chuckled as he pulled it out, blowing out the fire that clung to the charred end of his stick.

"You were doing it wrong anyway," she told him, shuffling away from her mother on her knees. "You need to rotate."

Amused, he raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Mm-hmm." She plucked up one of the other sticks from the ground beside him and held a hand out, wiggling her fingers expectantly until he placed a marshmallow in it. She stuck it on the end of the stick and lowered it into the fire, glancing at him with a grin. "You want it brown, not black. Otherwise it'll taste like ash."

Derek copied her, ducking his own fresh marshmallow in the fire, inches from hers.

"You've gotta be patient," she said, pulling hers up from the fire for a moment before she ducked it back in. "If you just drop it into the heart of the fire, it burns too fast, and you lose the best parts."

"Patient, huh?" He lifted his up a little, letting the flames just lick at the edges of the marshmallow.

She looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "It's worth it."

He bit his lip to hide a smile. "I know."

The two sat, staring into the fire, unaware of the silent conversation going on between their mothers. In fact, they'd completely forgotten they were even there. At least until Talia stood from her seat, paused to kiss the top of Derek's head, and told him, "Don't stay up too late."

He looked up to her, standing highlighted by the moon, and nodded.

Talia laid on a blanket near her eldest daughter, while Moira rose to lay on the opposite end of the yard. Chloe could see what they were doing though. Between Talia and Laura, Bo, and Moira, the pack was surrounded, sentinels standing watch even in their sleep, laying on the outside, prepared for an attack on any side.

Her attention was brought back to Derek as he pulled his marshmallow from the fire, smiling at its perfectly browned skin, still warm and bubbling. He bit it right off the end of his stick, not caring that the inside would likely burn his tongue. He grinned at her, his teeth wearing sticky, stretching marshmallow proudly.

She rolled her eyes lightheartedly and took her stick from the fire, squeezing the bottom of her marshmallow and sliding it off the end. It stung a little, leaking through the hole the stick has left behind and burning the pad of her thumb, but she healed so fast it barely mattered. She bit the top off and felt it ooze over her fingers before she pushed the rest into her mouth, licking at her sticky lips, using her teeth to try and clean them off. Derek caught her hand and brought it up to his mouth, licking some of the leftover marshmallow from her fingers. She laughed, her head falling back, and turned her hand, trying to wipe the white strings that stuck to his lips. He nipped at her fingers and she stared up at him, her eyes turning a dark gold, her laughter fading.

Maybe they would come back that summer and maybe they wouldn't. All she really knew was that she had Derek right then and she didn't feel like wasting what time she had. But they were surrounded by family, so leaning up for a kiss, or more, wasn't really in the cards. Still, she brought her hand back and cleaned the same fingers he bit and licked with her own mouth, watching his eyes flash a feral blue.

"We should get some sleep," he said, dragging his eyes from her mouth and toward the fire.

Nodding, she pushed up to her feet and helped him douse the fire. They used a bottle of water to clean off their hands from the leftover stickiness before moving through the grass to lay down on the last two blankets, setting themselves up in a position to keep the younger kids safe if anything happened. But as she laid down, facing the starry sky, she stared at the moon, and couldn't get her brain to slow down, to stop turning over what it felt like to feel his lips against hers, his hands on her skin.

She bit her lip to keep her smile at bay and closed her eyes. She wasn't surprised when she dreamt of running beside a blue-eyed wolf under a full moon.

[**Next**: Part VII.]

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**Author's Note**:_ Thank you to **Elliesmeow**, **Nienna Tinehtele**, **Guest**, **Booklover9477**, and **TessFan** for reviewing! You guys are awesome!_


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